No Arabic abstract
In this work we analyze PT-symmetric double-well potentials based on a two-mode picture. We reduce the problem into a PT-symmetric dimer and illustrate that the latter has effectively two fundamental bifurcations, a pitchfork (symmetry-breaking bifurcation) and a saddle-center one, which is the nonlinear analog of the PT-phase-transition. It is shown that the symmetry breaking leads to ghost states (amounting to growth or decay); although these states are not true solutions of the original continuum problem, the systems dynamics closely follows them, at least in its metastable evolution. Past the second bifurcation, there are no longer states of the original continuum system. Nevertheless, the solutions can be analytically continued to yield a new pair of branches, which is also identified and dynamically examined. Our explicit analytical results for the dimer are directly compared to the full continuum problem, yielding a good agreement.
A Parity-Time (PT)-symmetric system with periodically varying-in-time gain and loss modeled by two coupled Schrodinger equations (dimer) is studied. It is shown that the problem can be reduced to a perturbed pendulum-like equation. This is done by finding two constants of motion. Firstly, a generalized problem using Melnikov type analysis and topological degree arguments is studied for showing the existence of periodic (libration), shift periodic (rotation), and chaotic solutions. Then these general results are applied to the PT-symmetric dimer. It is interestingly shown that if a sufficient condition is satisfied, then rotation modes, which do not exist in the dimer with constant gain-loss, will persist. An approximate threshold for PT-broken phase corresponding to the disappearance of bounded solutions is also presented. Numerical study is presented accompanying the analytical results.
Considering the coherent nonlinear dynamics in double square well potential we find the example of coexistence of Josephson oscillations with a self-trapping regime. This macroscopic bistability is explained by proving analytically the simultaneous existence of symmetric, antisymmetric and asymmetric stationary solutions of the associated Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The effect is illustrated and confirmed by numerical simulations. This property allows to make suggestions on possible experiments using Bose-Einstein condensates in engineered optical lattices or weakly coupled optical waveguide arrays.
We investigate dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates in a complex external double-well potential that features a combined parity and time-reversal symmetry. On the basis of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation we study the effects of the long-ranged anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction on ground and excited states by the use of a time-dependent variational approach. We show that the property of a similar non-dipolar condensate to possess real energy eigenvalues in certain parameter ranges is preserved despite the inclusion of this nonlinear interaction. Furthermore, we present states that break the PT symmetry and investigate the stability of the distinct stationary solutions. In our dynamical simulations we reveal a complex stabilization mechanism for PT-symmetric, as well as for PT-broken states which are, in principle, unstable with respect to small perturbations.
We construct exact localised solutions of the PT-symmetric Gross-Pitaevskii equation with an attractive cubic nonlinearity. The trapping potential has the form of two $delta$-function wells, where one well loses particles while the other one is fed with atoms at an equal rate. The parameters of the constructed solutions are expressible in terms of the roots of a system of two transcendental algebraic equations. We also furnish a simple analytical treatment of the linear Schrodinger equation with the PT-symmetric double-$delta$ potential.
One-dimensional PT-symmetric quantum-mechanical Hamiltonians having continuous spectra are studied. The Hamiltonians considered have the form $H=p^2+V(x)$, where $V(x)$ is odd in $x$, pure imaginary, and vanishes as $|x|toinfty$. Five PT-symmetric potentials are studied: the Scarf-II potential $V_1(x)=iA_1,{rm sech}(x)tanh(x)$, which decays exponentially for large $|x|$; the rational potentials $V_2(x)=iA_2,x/(1+x^4)$ and $V_3(x)=iA_3,x/(1+|x|^3)$, which decay algebraically for large $|x|$; the step-function potential $V_4(x)=iA_4,{rm sgn}(x)theta(2.5-|x|)$, which has compact support; the regulated Coulomb potential $V_5(x)=iA_5,x/(1+x^2)$, which decays slowly as $|x|toinfty$ and may be viewed as a long-range potential. The real parameters $A_n$ measure the strengths of these potentials. Numerical techniques for solving the time-independent Schrodinger eigenvalue problems associated with these potentials reveal that the spectra of the corresponding Hamiltonians exhibit universal properties. In general, the eigenvalues are partly real and partly complex. The real eigenvalues form the continuous part of the spectrum and the complex eigenvalues form the discrete part of the spectrum. The real eigenvalues range continuously in value from $0$ to $+infty$. The complex eigenvalues occur in discrete complex-conjugate pairs and for $V_n(x)$ ($1leq nleq4$) the number of these pairs is finite and increases as the value of the strength parameter $A_n$ increases. However, for $V_5(x)$ there is an {it infinite} sequence of discrete eigenvalues with a limit point at the origin. This sequence is complex, but it is similar to the Balmer series for the hydrogen atom because it has inverse-square convergence.