  We study the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a cigar-shaped
three-dimensional harmonic trap, induced by the controlled addition of an
attractive "dimple" potential along the weak axis. In this manner we are able
to induce condensation without cooling due to a localized increase in the phase
space density. We perform a quantitative analysis of the thermodynamic
transformation in both the sudden and adiabatic regimes for a range of dimple
widths and depths. We find good agreement with equilibrium calculations based
on self-consistent semiclassical Hartree-Fock theory describing the condensate
and thermal cloud. We observe there is an optimal dimple depth that results in
a maximum in the condensate fraction. We also study the non-equilibrium
dynamics of condensate formation in the sudden turn-on regime, finding good
agreement for the observed time dependence of the condensate fraction with
calculations based on quantum kinetic theory.
