We quantize the recent hydrodynamic analysis of Stringari for the low-energy collective modes of a trapped Bose gas at T=0. This is based on the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation, but omits the kinetic energy of the density fluctuations. We diagonalize the hydrodynamic Hamiltonian in terms of the normal modes associated with the amplitude and phase of the inhomogeneous Bose order parameter. These normal modes provide a convenient basis for calculating observable quantities. As applications, we calculate the depletion of the condensate at T=0 as well as the inelastic light-scattering cross section S(q,ω) from low-energy condensate fluctuations. The latter involves a sum over all normal modes, with a weight proportional to the square of the q Fourier component of the density fluctuation associated with a given mode. Finally, we show how the Thomas-Fermi hydrodynamic description can be derived starting from the coupled Bogoliubov equations. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 10 June 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.54.4204