Ali et al. [Phys. Rev. A 75, 042110 (2007)] have claimed that empirically testable differences exist between the quantum and semiclassical time of flight distribution for cold trapped atoms. We believe these claims to be misleading. For the particular case of noninteracting bosonic particles released from a harmonic trapping potential, we show that the quantum and semiclassical calculations for the time-of-flight distribution are equivalent, provided one is not too close to the quantum degeneracy point.

• Received 6 July 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.77.026101