We show that one can properly take into account of the interaction effects and construct a set of orthonormal Wannier functions for a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice. These interaction-dependent Wannier functions are used to compute the tunneling rate
J and the on-site repulsion
U in the Bose-Hubbard model. Both parameters are found to be substantially different from ones calculated with the single-particle Wannier functions. Our numerical results of
U are found in good agreement with the measured on-site energy in a recent experiment [Campbell {\it et al.} Science {\bf 314}, 281 (2006)].
In this thesis, the physics of trapped, interacting Bose-Einstein condensates is analyzed by solving the many-body Schrödinger equation. Particular emphasis is put on coherence, fragmentation and reduced density matrices. First, the ground state of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate and its correlation functions are obtained. Then the dynamics of a bosonic Josephson junction is investigated by solving the time-dependent many-body Schrödinger equation numerically exactly. These are the first exact results in literature in this context. It is shown that the standard approximations of the field, Gross-Pitaevskii theory and the Bose-Hubbard model fail at weak interaction strength and within their range of expected validity. For stronger interactions the dynamics becomes strongly correlated and a new equilibration phenomenon is discovered. By comparison with exact results it is shown that a symmetry of the Bose-Hubbard model between attractive and repulsive interactions must be considered an artefact of the model. A conceptual innovation of this thesis are time-dependent Wannier functions. Equations of motion for time-dependent Wannier functions are derived from the variational principle. By comparison with exact results it is shown that lattice models can be greatly improved at little computational cost by letting the Wannier functions of a lattice model become time-dependent.