Shape oscillations in nondegenerate Bose gases: Transition from the collisionless to the hydrodynamic regime

We investigate collective oscillations of nondegenerate clouds of Rb-87 atoms as a function of density in an elongated magnetic trap. For the low-lying M=0 monopole-quadrupole shape oscillation we measure the oscillation frequencies and damping rates. At the highest densities the mean free path is smaller than the axial dimension of the sample, which corresponds to collisionally hydrodynamic conditions. This allows us to cover the crossover from the collisionless to the hydrodynamic regime. The experimental results show good agreement with theory. We also analyze the influence of trap anharmonicities on the oscillations in relation to observed temperature dependencies of the dipole and quadrupole oscillation frequencies. We present convenient expressions to quantify these effects.