Low energy excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensate: A time-dependent variational analysis

We solve the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation by a variational ansatz to calculate the excitation spectrum of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a trap. The trial wave function is a Gaussian which allows an essentially analytical treatment of the problem. Our results reproduce numerical calculations over the whole range from small to large particle numbers, and agree exactly with the Stringari results in the strong interaction limit. Excellent agreement is obtained with the recent JILA experiment and predictions for the negative scattering length case are also made.