Chaohong Lee et al 2007 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 40 4235 doi:10.1088/0953-4075/40/21/010
Chaohong Lee, Elena A Ostrovskaya and Yuri S Kivshar
Show affiliationsWe investigate the nonlinearity-assisted quantum tunnelling and formation of nonlinear collective excitations in a matter-wave interferometer, which is realized by the adiabatic transformation of a double-well potential into a single-well harmonic trap. In contrast to the linear quantum tunnelling induced by the crossing (or avoided crossing) of neighbouring energy levels, the quantum tunnelling between different nonlinear eigenstates is assisted by the nonlinear mean-field interaction. When the barrier between the wells decreases, the mean-field interaction aids quantum tunnelling between the ground and excited nonlinear eigenstates. The resulting non-adiabatic evolution depends on the input states. The tunnelling process leads to the generation of dark solitons, and the number of the generated dark solitons is highly sensitive to the matter-wave nonlinearity. The results of the numerical simulations of the matter-wave dynamics are successfully interpreted with a coupled-mode theory for multiple nonlinear eigenstates.
03.75.Kk Dynamic properties of condensates; collective and hydrodynamic excitations, superfluid flow
Issue 21 (14 November 2007)
Received 2 July 2007, in final form 7 September 2007
Published 19 October 2007
Chaohong Lee et al 2007 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 40 4235
B Fellmuth et al 2006 Meas. Sci. Technol. 17 R145
Yang Ling et al 2009 Chinese Phys. Lett. 26 117104
H.J. Kong et al 2009 Nucl. Fusion 49 125002
David S Rabeling et al 2006 Class. Quantum Grav. 23 S267
T. J. Galama et al 1998 ApJ 497 L13
Iddo Eliazar and Joseph Klafter 2009 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 42 472003
Sudipta Roy 2007 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 40 R413
J Tempere and J T Devreese 2006 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 39 S57
Sang-Yoon Kim and Woochang Lim 2003 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 36 6951