Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
Quantum dynamics of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate
Gerard J Milburn, Joel Frederick Corney, David Harris, Ewan M. Wright, Daniel F. Walls
Abstract
We consider the quantum dynamics of a neutral atom Bose- Einstein condensate in a double-well potential, including hard-sphere particle interactions. Using a mean-field factorization we show that the coherent oscillations due to tunnelling are suppressed when the number of atoms exceeds a critical value. An exact quantum solution, in a two-mode approximation, shows that the mean-field solution is modulated by a quantum collapse and revival sequence. Chaotic dynamics results when the potential is modulated.