We study the tunneling dynamics and energy bands of three Bose-Einstein condensates which are coupled weakly with each other. The study is carried out with both the mean-filed model and the second-quantized model. The results from these two models are compared and found to agree with each other when the particle number is large. Without interaction, this system possesses a Dirac point in its energy band. This Dirac point is immediately destroyed and develops into a loop structure with arbitrary small interaction. This loop structure has a strong effect on the tunneling dynamics. We find that the tunneling dynamics in this system is very sensitive to the system parameter, e.g., the interaction strength. This sensitivity is found to be caused by the chaos in the mean-field model and the avoided energy crossings with tiny gaps in the second-quantized model. This result gives a certain indication on how the classical dynamics and quantum dynamics are connected in the semi-classical limit. Our mean-field results are also valid for three mutually coupled optical nonlinear waveguides.
We study the tunneling dynamics and energy bands of three Bose-Einstein condensates which are coupled weakly with each other. The study is carried out with both the mean-filed model and the second-quantized model. The results from these two models are compared and found to agree with each other when the particle number is large. Without interaction, this system possesses a Dirac point in its energy band. This Dirac point is immediately destroyed and develops into a loop structure with arbitrary small interaction. This loop structure has a strong effect on the tunneling dynamics. We find that the tunneling dynamics in this system is very sensitive to the system parameter, e.g., the interaction strength. This sensitivity is found to be caused by the chaos in the mean-field model and the avoided energy crossings with tiny gaps in the second-quantized model. This result gives a certain indication on how the classical dynamics and quantum dynamics are connected in the semi-classical limit. Our mean-field results are also valid for three mutually coupled optical nonlinear waveguides.
Abstract We theoretically investigate the energy band structure and Josephson dynamics of a spin-orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. We study the energy band structure and the corresponding tunneling dynamics of the system by properly adjusting the SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions. The coupled effects of SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions lead to the appearance of complex energy band structure including the loop structure. Particularly, the emergence of the loop structure in energy band also depends on SO coupling, Raman coupling, Zeeman field and atomic interactions. Correspondingly, the Josephson dynamics of the system are strongly related to the energy band structure. Especially, the emergence of the loop structure results in complex tunneling dynamics, including suppression-revival transitions and self-trapping of atoms transfer between two spin states and two wells. This engineering provides a possible means for studying energy level and corresponding dynamics of two-species SO coupled BECs.
By employing a nonlinear three-mode model, we study the band structure of Bose-Einstein condensates in Fourier-synthesized optical lattices, where the nonlinearity comes from the mean field treatment of interaction between atoms. In the linear case, we present the band structure of the system. It is observed that the energy band structure is strongly dependent on the relative phase between the two lattice harmonics. In the nonlinear case, we show that the eigenenergy as a function of energy bias has a striking bowl structure in the middle energy level. It is found that there exist four critical values of interaction strength where the band structure undergoes interesting changes. Because of these topological distortions on the energy levels, we expect that the tunnelling dynamics make a dramatic change. The tunnelling probability is nonzero when the nonlinear term is very small and the energy levels keep the same topological structure as that in the linear case. Especially, the tunnelling probability as a function of the sweeping rate shows an irregular oscillation for the state on the middle level.
Energy band structure and stability of Bose-Einstein condensate with both two- and three-body interactions in one-dimensional periodic optical lattices are discussed. It is demonstrated that the lowest energy band can show a loop structure at the boundary of the first Brillouin zone only when the number of atoms is larger than a critical value. When the loop structure is excited, an analytical expression of the loop width is obtained. The energetical and dynamical stabilities of the system are determined by considering the behavior of the Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional when the condensate wave function diverge away from a stationary state upon small perturbation, and its dependence on the number of atoms, the magnitude of the periodic potential, especially, the strength of the three-body force are studied. In addition, a criteria of the stability for excitations with long wavelengths is given by applying the hydrodynamic approach. The influence of the three-body interaction on the band properties and the stabilities are discussed in detail. It is shown that the critical density for developing the loop structure, the loop width, and the instability criteria are modified dramatically by the three-body interaction.
We investigate the energy structures and the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in a triple-well potential coupled a high finesse optical cavity within a mean field approach. Due to the intrinsic atom-cavity field nonlinearity, several interesting phenomena arise which are the focuses of this work. For the energy structure, the bistability appears in the energy levels due to this atoms-cavity field nonlinearity, and the same phenomena can be found in the intra-cavity photons number. With an increase of the pump-cavity detunings, the higher and lower energy levels show a loop structure due to this cavity-mediated effects. In the dynamical process, an extensive numerical simulation of localization of the BECs for atoms initially trapped in one-, two-, and three-wells are performed for the symmetric and asymmetric cases in detail. It is shown that the the transition from oscillation to the localization can be modified by the cavity-mediated potential, which will enlarge the regions of oscillation. With the increasing of the atomic interaction, the oscillation is blocked and the localization emerges. The condensates atoms can be trapped either in one-, two-, or in three wells eventually where they are initially uploaded for certain parameters. In particular, we find that the transition from the oscillation to the localization is accompanied with some irregular regime where tunneling dynamics is dominated by chaos for this cavity-mediated system.
The simplest model of three coupled Bose-Einstein condensates is investigated using a group theoretical method. The stationary solutions are determined using the SU(3) group under the mean-field approximation. This semiclassical analysis, using system symmetries, shows a transition in the dynamics of the system from self trapping to delocalization at a critical value for the coupling between the condensates. The global dynamics are investigated by examination of the stable points, and our analysis shows that the structure of the stable points depends on the ratio of the condensate coupling to the particle-particle interaction, and undergoes bifurcations as this ratio is varied. This semiclassical model is compared to a full quantum treatment, which also displays a dynamical transition. The quantum case has collapse and revival sequences superimposed on the semiclassical dynamics, reflecting the underlying discreteness of the spectrum. Nonzero circular current states are also demonstrated as one of the higher-dimensional effects displayed in this system.
We investigate the quasienergies and Floquet states of two weakly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates driven by a periodic force. The quasienergies and Floquet states of this system are computed within two different theoretical frameworks: the mean-field model and the second-quantized model. The mean-field approach reveals a triangular structure in the quasienergy band. Our analysis of the corresponding Floquet states shows that this triangle signals the onset of a localization phenomenon, which can be regarded as a generalization of the well-known phenomenon called coherent destruction of tunneling. With the second-quantized model, we find also a triangular structure in the quantum quasienergy band, which is enveloped by the mean-field triangle. The close relation between these two sets of quasienergies is further explored by a semiclassical method. With a Sommerfeld rule generalized to time-dependent systems, the quantum quasienergies are computed by quantizing semiclassically the mean-field model and they are found to agree very well with the results obtained directly with the second-quantized model.