Breaking the resilience of a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate to fragmentation
Shachar Klaiman, Axel U. J. Lode, Alexej I. Streltsov +2 more
A two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) split by a radial potential barrier is investigated. We determine on an accurate many-body level the system's ground-state phase diagram as well as a time-dependent phase diagram of the splitting process. Whereas the ground state is condensed for a wide range of parameters, the time-dependent splitting process leads to substantial fragmentation. We demonstrate the dynamical fragmentation of a BEC despite its ground state being condensed. The results are analyzed using a mean-field model and suggest that a large manifold of low-lying fragmented excited states can significantly impact the dynamics of trapped two-dimensional BECs.
arXiv:1409.0323•Physical Review A•Oct 20, 2014•35 citations