Bose–Einstein condensates under a non-Hermitian spin–orbit coupling

We study the properties of Bose–Einstein condensates under a non-Hermitian spin–orbit coupling(SOC), induced by a dissipative two-photon Raman process. We focus on the dynamics of the condensate at short times, when the impact of decoherence induced by quantum jumps is negligible and the dynamics is coherently driven by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Given the significantly modified single-particle physics by dissipative SOC, the interplay of non-Hermiticity and interaction leads to a quasi-steady-state phase diagram different from its Hermitian counterpart. In particular, we find that dissipation can induce a phase transition from the stripe phase to the plane-wave phase. We further map out the phase diagram with respect to the dissipation and interaction strengths, and finally investigate the stability of quasi-steady states through the time-dependent dissipative Gross–Pitaevskii equation. Our results are readily accessible based on standard experiments with synthetic spin–orbit couplings.     

Dynamics and formation of vortices collapsed from ring dark solitons in a two-dimensional spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate

We consider the dynamics and formation of vortices from ring dark solitons in a two-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate with the Rashba spin–orbit coupling based on the time-dependent coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equation. Compared with previous results, the system exhibits complex dynamical behaviors in the presence of the spin–orbit coupling. With the modulation of the spin–orbit coupling, not only the lifetime of ring dark solitons is greatly prolonged, but also their attenuation kinetics is significantly affected. For two shallow ring dark solitons with the equal strength of the spin–orbit coupling, the radius of ring dark solitons increases to a maximum value over time and then shrinks into a minimum value. Due to the effect of the snake instability, ring dark solitons split into a series of ring-like clusters of vortex pairs, which perform complex oscillations. This indicates that the system is strongly dependent on the presence of the spin–orbit coupling. Furthermore, the effect of different initial modulation depths on the dynamics of ring dark solitons is investigated.     

The effect of repulsive interactions on Bose-Einstein condensation

One-dimensional Bose gases that interact via a repulsive two-body interaction and show Bose-Einstein condensation at the free level are studied. It is shown that the introduction of this interaction, however small, destroys the condensate. It is also shown that the free energy of an interacting Bose gas does not depend on the boundary conditions(including attractive boundary conditions) in the van der Waals limit.     

Interference of Two-Component Bose-Einstein Condensates with a Coupling Drive in Presence of Dissipation

The interference of the two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with a coupling drive in the presence of the dissipation is studied. We find that when the two-component Bose-Einstein condensates are initially in the coherent states, for the smaller dissipation parameters compared with that of the rf frequency ωrf, the interference intensity exhibits damply oscillation behavior, whereas when the dissipation parameters are larger than that of the ωry, the interference intensity exhibits a fast attenuation behavior. As a comparison, the interference intensity in the absence of the dissipation is also studied. We conclude that the dissipation of the system can be evaluated by selecting the ωrf experimentally.     

玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体系中的混沌隧穿行为

研究了双势阱玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚(BEC)系统在外加周期调制下的混沌相变过程,着重讨论了混沌现象对BEC系统隧穿的影响.当外加调制频率与系统固有频率达到共振时,相平面会出现不稳定现象,即混沌现象.在量子情况下,研究了系统的Husimi函数随时间的演化.研究发现：当混沌现象出现时,系统中粒子间相互作用增大,使得混沌区域扩大,进而引起混沌辅助隧穿程度的变化. 关键词： 玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚 混沌 隧穿     

Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas

Using the complete numerical solution of a time-dependent three-dimensional mean-field model we study the Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas (SFG) at zero temperature formed in a combined axially-symmetric harmonic plus one-dimensional periodic optical-lattice (OL) potentials after displacing the harmonic trap along the axial OL axis. We study the dependence of Josephson frequency on the strength of the OL potential. The Josephson frequency decreases with increasing strength as found in the experiment of Cataliotti et al. [Science 293, 843 (2001)] for a Bose-Einstein condensate and of the experiment of Pezzè et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 120401 (2004)] for an ideal Fermi gas. We demonstrate a breakdown of Josephson oscillation in the SFG for a large displacement of the harmonic trap. These features of Josephson oscillation of a SFG can be tested experimentally.     

Coherence properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical superlattice

We study the effect of a one dimensional optical superlattice on the superfluid properties (superfluid fraction, number squeezing, dynamic structure factor) and the quasi-momentum distribution of the Mott-insulator. We show that due to the secondary lattice, there is a decrease in the superfluid fraction and the number fluctuation. The dynamic structure factor which can be measured by Bragg spectroscopy is also suppressed due to the addition of the secondary lattice. The visibility of the interference pattern (the quasi-momentum distribution) of the Mott-insulator is found to decrease due to the presence of the secondary lattice. Our results have important implications in atom interferometry and quantum computation in optical lattices.     

Mott transition in anharmonic confinement

Two effects are identified that affect the visibility of the Mott transition in an atomic gas in an optical lattice confined in a power-law potential. The transition can be made more pronounced by increasing the power law, but at the same time, experimental uncertainty in the number of particles will induce corresponding fluctuations in the measured condensate fraction. Calculations in two dimensions indicate that a potential slightly more flat-bottomed than a quadratic one is to be preferred for a wide range of particle number fluctuation size.     

Anti-control of chaos in Bose-Einstein condensates

The spatial structure of a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) loaded into an optical lattice potential is investigated. We suggest a method for generating chaos in BEC by modulating periodic signals to convert the regular states into chaotic states. The maximal Lyapunov exponent is calculated as a function of modulation intensity and modulation frequency respectively, and the chaotic orbits associated with the positive Lyapunov exponents.      

Two-dimensional matter-wave solitons and vortices in competing cubic-quintic nonlinear lattices

The nonlinear lattice — a new and nonlinear class of periodic potentials — was recently introduced to generate various nonlinear localized modes. Several attempts failed to stabilize two-dimensional (2D) solitons against their intrinsic critical collapse in Kerr media. Here, we provide a possibility for supporting 2D matter-wave solitons and vortices in an extended setting — the cubic and quintic model — by introducing another nonlinear lattice whose period is controllable and can be different from its cubic counterpart, to its quintic nonlinearity, therefore making a fully “nonlinear quasi-crystal”.A variational approximation based on Gaussian ansatz is developed for the fundamental solitons and in particular, their stability exactly follows the inverted Vakhitov–Kolokolov stability criterion, whereas the vortex solitons are only studied by means of numerical methods. Stability regions for two types of localized mode — the fundamental and vortex solitons — are provided. A noteworthy feature of the localized solutions is that the vortex solitons are stable only when the period of the quintic nonlinear lattice is the same as the cubic one or when the quintic nonlinearity is constant, while the stable fundamental solitons can be created under looser conditions. Our physical setting (cubic-quintic model) is in the framework of the Gross–Pitaevskii equation or nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the predicted localized modes thus may be implemented in Bose–Einstein condensates and nonlinear optical media with tunable cubic and quintic nonlinearities.