Stability of Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential

We investigate the stability of the first excited state, the so-called “π-state,” of Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential. From the condition of complex excitation energies, we determine the critical barrier height, above which the π-state is dynamically unstable. We find that the critical barrier height decreases monotonically as the number of condensate atoms increases. We also simulate the dynamics of the π-state by solving the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Our simulation results show that the π-state in the dynamically unstable region exhibits distinctively different behavior from that in the dynamically stable region.     

Atom interferometry with Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential

A trapped-atom interferometer was demonstrated using gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates coherently split by deforming an optical single-well potential into a double-well potential. The relative phase between the two condensates was determined from the spatial phase of the matter wave interference pattern formed upon releasing the condensates from the separated potential wells. Coherent phase evolution was observed for condensates held separated by 13 microm for up to 5 ms and was controlled by applying ac Stark shift potentials to either of the two separated condensates.     

Adiabatic tunneling of Bose–Einstein condensates with modulated atom interaction in a double-well potential

We study the adiabatic tunneling of Bose–Einstein condensates in a symmetric double-well potential when the interaction strength between the atoms is modulated linearly or in a cosine periodic form. It is shown that the system evolves along a nonlinear eigenstate path. In the case of linear modulation under the adiabatic approximation conditions, the tunneling probability of the condensate atoms to the other potential well is half. However, when the system is periodically scanned in the adiabatic process, we find an interesting phenomenon. A small change in the cycle period can lead to the condensate atoms returning to the right well or tunneling to the left well. The system comes from a linear eigenstate back to a nonlinear one, which is completely different from the linear eigenstate evolution. We explain the results by using the energy level and the phase diagram.     

Excitations of one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates in a random potential

We examine bosons hopping on a one-dimensional lattice in the presence of a random potential at zero temperature. Bogoliubov excitations of the Bose-Einstein condensate formed under such conditions are localized, with the localization length diverging at low frequency as l(omega) approximately 1/omega(alpha). We show that the well-known result alpha=2 applies only for sufficiently weak random potential. As the random potential is increased beyond a certain strength, alpha starts decreasing. At a critical strength of the potential, when the system of bosons is at the transition from a superfluid to an insulator, alpha=1. This result is relevant for understanding the behavior of the atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of random potential, and of the disordered Josephson junction arrays.     

Dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in one-dimensional optical lattices in the presence of transverse resonances

The dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in the lowest energy band of a one-dimensional optical lattice is generally disturbed by the presence of transversally excited resonant states. We propose an effective one-dimensional theory which takes these resonant modes into account and derive variational equations for large-scale dynamics. Several applications of the theory are discussed and a novel type of “triple soliton” is proposed, which consists of a superposition of a wavepacket at the upper band edge and two transversally excited wavepackets which are displaced in quasi-momentum space.     

Impurity-induced localization of Bose-Einstein condensates in one-dimensional optical lattices

The impurity-induced localization of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates loaded into deep one-dimensional optical lattices is studied both analytically and numerically.It is shown that,the analytical criteria for self-trapping and moving soliton/breather of the primary-component condensate are modified significantly by an admixture of an impurity component (the second component).The realization of the self-trapped state and the moving soliton/breather states of the primary-component becomes more easy with the minor admixture of the impurity-component,even if the two components are partly overlapped.     

Collisionally inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates in double-well potentials

In this work, we consider quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), with spatially varying collisional interactions, trapped in double-well potentials. In particular, we study a setup in which such a “collisionally inhomogeneous” BEC has the same (attractive-attractive or repulsive-repulsive) or different (attractive-repulsive) types of interparticle interactions. Our analysis is based on the continuation of the symmetric ground state and anti-symmetric first excited state of the non-interacting (linear) limit into their nonlinear counterparts. The collisional inhomogeneity produces a saddle-node bifurcation scenario between two additional solution branches; as the inhomogeneity becomes stronger, the turning point of the saddle-node tends to infinity and eventually only the two original branches remain, which is completely different from the standard double-well phenomenology. Finally, one of these branches changes its monotonicity as a function of the chemical potential, a feature especially prominent, when the sign of the nonlinearity changes between the two wells. Our theoretical predictions, are in excellent agreement with the numerical results.     

Demonstrating mesoscopic superpositions in double-well Bose-Einstein condensates

The availability of Bose-Einstein condensates as mesoscopic or macroscopic quantum objects has aroused new interest in the possibility of making and detecting coherent superpositions involving many atoms. We consider the important problem of distinguishing whether a coherent superposition or a statistical mixture is generated by a given experimental procedure, using the specific example of a double-well condensate. In this system, such a superposition state can be generated by using a Feshbach resonance to tune the inter-atomic interactions. We find that unambiguously distinguishing even a perfect ‘NOON’ state from a statistical mixture using standard detection methods will present experimental difficulties.     

Spatial chaos of trapped Bose-Einstein condensate in one-dimensional weak optical lattice potential

The spatially chaotic attractor in an elongated cloud of Bose-Einstein condensed atoms perturbed by a weak optical lattice potential is studied. The analytical insolvability and numerical incomputability of the atomic number density are revealed by a perturbed solution that illustrates the unpredictability of the deterministic chaos. Although this could lead the nonphysical explosion and unboundedness to the numerical solution, the theoretical analysis offers a criterion to avoid them. Moreover, the velocity field is investigated that exhibits the superfluid property of the chaotic system.     

双色光晶格势阱中玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的Landau-Zener隧穿行为

考虑玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体局限于周期性的双色光晶格势阱中,研究其中的Bloch能带结构、第一能隙和第二能隙的Landau-Zener隧穿行为.结果表明,随着双色光晶格势阱的主、次晶格相位差从0增加到π,Bloch能带中第一能隙宽度逐渐增加,而第二能隙宽度逐渐减小.同时发现,双色光晶格势阱的主、次晶格深度及其相位差对第一能隙和第二能隙的Landau-Zener隧穿性质有重要的影响.     

Tunneling dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates with higher-order interactions in optical lattice

The nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling and nonlinear Rabi oscillations of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with higher-order atomic interaction between the Bloch bands in an accelerating optical lattice are discussed. Within the two-level model, the tunneling probability of BEC with higher-order atomic interaction between Bloch bands is obtained. We finds that the tunneling rate is closely related to the higher-order atomic interaction. Furthermore, the nonlinear Rabi oscillations of BEC with higher-order atomic interaction between the bands are discussed by imposing a periodic modulation on the level bias. Analytical expressions of the critical higher-order atomic interaction for suppressing/enhancing the Rabi oscillations are obtained. It is shown that the critical value strongly depends on the modulation parameters (i.e., the modulation amplitude and frequency) and the strength of periodic potential.     

Ferromagnetism in a lattice of Bose-Einstein condensates

We show that an ensemble of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice can undergo a ferromagnetic phase transition and spontaneous magnetization arises due to the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction. This phenomenon is analogous to ferromagnetism in solid state physics, but occurs with bosons instead of fermions.     

Magnons interaction of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice

We study the interaction of magnons in dipolar spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice. By means of Holstein-Primakoff and Fourier transformations the energy spectra of the ground and the excited states is obtained analytically. Our results show that the collision of magnons is elastic which is expressed by the conservation of wave numbers in the process of collision. At last, we found that the interaction of magnons is attractive which tends to self-localization to form spin waves, i.e., a cluster of a macroscopic number of coherent magnons. Because of the attraction, the instability of spin wave brings about the existence of solitary wave.     

Stability of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates in one-dimensional tilted optical lattice potential

Using the direct perturbation technique,this paper obtains a general perturbed solution of the Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in one-dimensional tilted optical lattice potential. We also gave out two necessary and sufficient conditions for boundedness of the perturbed solution. Theoretical analytical results and the corresponding numerical results show that the perturbed solution of the Bose-Einstein condensate system is unbounded in general and indicate that the Bose-Einstein condensates are Lyapunov-unstable. However,when the conditions for boundedness of the perturbed solution are satisfied,then the Bose-Einstein condensates are Lyapunov-stable.     

Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of a magnetic trap and optical lattice

In this paper we consider solutions of a nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a parabolic and a periodic potential motivated from the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates. Our starting point is the corresponding linear problem which we analyze through regular perturbation and homogenization techniques. We then use Lyapunov-Schmidt theory to establish the persistence and bifurcation of the linear states in the presence of attractive and repulsive nonlinear inter-particle interactions. Stability of such solutions is also examined and a count is given of the potential real, complex and imaginary eigenvalues with negative Krein signature that such solutions may possess. The results are corroborated with numerical computations.     

光晶格中双组分偶极玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的调制不稳定性

利用线性稳定性分析的方法,对光晶格中双组分偶极玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体(Bose-Einstein condensates,简称BECs)的调制不稳定性进行了研究.得到了光晶格中双组分偶极BECs原子系统调制不稳定性区域的分布与在位相互作用和由偶极-偶极相互作用所导致的格点间BECs相互作用之间的关系.结果显示,格点间BECs的相互作用对光晶格中双组分偶极BECs的调制不稳定性有较大的影响,这可为实际应用中如何操控双组分偶极BECs提供有用的信息. 关键词： 光晶格 双组分玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体 调制不稳定性 偶极-偶极相互作用     

Dark soliton interaction of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice

We study the magnetic soliton dynamics of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice which results in an effective Hamiltonian of anisotropic pseudospin chain. An equation of nonlinear Schrödinger type is derived and exact magnetic soliton solutions are obtained analytically by means of Hirota method. Our results show that the critical external field is needed for creating the magnetic soliton in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates. The soliton size, velocity and shape frequency can be controlled in practical experiment by adjusting the magnetic field. Moreover, the elastic collision of two solitons is investigated in detail.     

Interference of Bose-Einstein condensates and entangled single-atom state in a spin-dependent optical lattice

We present a theoretical model to investigate the interference of an array of Bose-Einstein condensates loaded in a one-dimensional spin-dependent optical lattice, which is based on an assumption that for the atoms in the entangled single-atom state between the internal and the external degrees of freedom each atom interferes only with itself. Our theoretical results agree well with the interference patterns observed in a recent experiment by Mandel et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 010407 (2003)]. In addition, an experimental suggestion of nonuniform phase distribution is proposed to test further our theoretical model and prediction. The present work shows that the entanglement of a single atom is sufficient for the interference of the condensates confined in a spin-dependent optical lattice and this interference is irrelevant with the phases of individual condensates, i.e., this interference arises only between each condensate and itself and there is no interference effect between two arbitrary different condensates.     

Periodic spin domains of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice

The periodic spin domains of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice are studied in terms of the equation of motion of the spinor which is reduced to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with the help of Holstein-Primakoff transformation. It is shown that the spin domains obtained analytically can be easily controlled by adjusting the light-induced dipole-dipole interaction, which is realizable in optical lattice created by red-detuned laser beams with modulating intensity. The dynamical stability of the spin domains is also demonstrated.