Creating macroscopic quantum superpositions of flow states with Bose-Einstein condensates (3 pages)

Masayoshi Nakano, Ryohei Kishi, Suguru Ohta +3 more

X. B. Zou, Yuli Dong, Guang‐Can Guo

We give a theoretical analysis of the experimental scheme for creating macroscopic superpositions of different superfluid flow states with Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in an optical lattice [J. Dunningham et al., Phys. Rev. A 74, 023601 (2006)]. It is shown that a class of macroscopic superposition states can be created for an arbitrary number of particles by dynamical evolution with a properly prepared initial state. When the number of particles is a multiple of 3, such states are exactly reduced to macroscopic superpositions of different superfluid flow states.

Fernando Sols, Sigmund Kohler

Dimitri R. Dounas-Frazer, Lincoln D. Carr

Jacob Dunningham, D. W. Hallwood

We present a straightforward scheme for creating macroscopic superpositions of different superfluid flow states of Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in optical lattices. This scheme has the great advantage that all the techniques required are within the reach of current experiments. Furthermore, the relative difficulty of creating superpositions scales favorably with the size of the state. This means that this scheme may be well suited to creating superpositions involving large numbers of particles. Such states may have interesting technological applications such as making quantum-limited measurements of angular momentum.

Lincoln D. Carr