Communications in Theoretical Physics
Tunneling Dynamics Between Atomic and Molecular Bose–Einstein Condensates
Changyong Chen
Abstract
Tunneling dynamics of multi-atomic molecules between atomic and multi-atomic molecular Bose–Einstein condensates with Feshbach resonance is investigated. It is indicated that the tunneling in the two Bose–Einstein condensates depends on not only the inter-atomic-molecular nonlinear interactions and the initial number of atoms in these condensates, but also the tunneling coupling between the atomic condensate and the multi-atomic molecular condensate. It is discovered that besides oscillating tunneling current between the atomic condensate and the multi-atomic molecular condensate, the nonlinear multi-atomic molecular tunneling dynamics sustains a self-locked population imbalance: a macroscopic quantum self-trapping effect. The influence of de-coherence caused by non-condensate atoms on the tunneling dynamics is studied. It is shown that de-coherence suppresses the multi-atomic molecular tunneling. Moreover, the conception of the molecular Bose–Einstein condensate, which is different from the conventional single-atomic Bose–Einstein condensate, is specially emphasized in this paper.