Tunnelling induced collapse of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential
E. Sakellari, Nick P. Proukakis, Charles S. Adams
Abstract
The stability of a low temperature Bose-Einstein condensate with attractive interactions in one and three dimensional double-well potentials is discussed. In particular, the tunnelling dynamics of a condensate under the influence of a timedependent potential gradient is investigated. The condensate is shown to collapse at a critical potential gradient which corresponds to a critical number of atoms in one of the two wells. The sensitivity of this tunnelling induced collapse could provide a useful tool in the study of condensates with attractive interactions. PACS numbers: 03.75.Lm, 03.75.kkTunnelling induced collapse in time-dependent double-well potential 2