No Arabic abstract
The out-of-equilibrium quantum dynamics of a bosonic Josephson junction (BJJ) with long-range interaction is studied in real space by solving the time-dependent many-body Schrodinger equation numerically accurately using the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons. Having the many-boson wave-function at hand we can examine the impact of the range of the interaction on the properties of the BJJ dynamics, viz. density oscillations and their collapse, self trapping, depletion and fragmentation, as well as the position variance, both at the mean-field and many-body level. Explicitly, the frequency of the density oscillations and the time required for their collapse, the value of fragmentation at the plateau, the maximal and the minimal values of the position variance in each cycle of oscillation and the overall pace of its growth are key to our study. We find competitive effect between the interaction and the confining trap. The presence of the tail part of the interaction basically enhances the effective repulsion as the range of the interaction is increased starting from a short, finite range. But as the range becomes comparable with the trap size, the system approaches a situation where all the atoms feel a constant potential and the impact of the tail on the dynamics diminishes. There is an optimal range of the interaction in which physical quantities of the junction are attaining their extreme values.
We investigate an atomic ensemble of interacting bosons trapped in a symmetric double well potential in contact with a single tightly trapped ion which has been recently proposed [R. Gerritsma et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 080402 (2012)] as a source of entanglement between a Bose-Einstein condensate and an ion. Compared to the previous study, the present work aims at performing a detailed and accurate many-body analysis of such combined atomic quantum system by means of the ab-initio multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method for bosons, which allows to take into account all correlations in the system. The analysis elucidates the importance of quantum correlations in the bosonic ensemble and reveals that entanglement generation between an ion and a condensate is indeed possible, as previously predicted. Moreover, we provide an intuitive picture of the impact of the correlations on the out-of-equilibrium dynamics by employing a natural orbital analysis which we show to be indeed experimentally verifiable.
Tunneling in a many-body system appears as one of the novel implications of quantum physics, in which particles move in space under an otherwise classically-forbidden potential barrier. Here, we theoretically describe the quantum dynamics of the tunneling phenomenon of a few intricate bosonic clouds in a closed system of a two-dimensional symmetric double-well potential. We examine how the inclusion of the transverse direction, orthogonal to the junction of the double-well, can intervene in the tunneling dynamics of bosonic clouds. We use a well-known many-body numerical method, called the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree for bosons (MCTDHB) method. MCTDHB allows one to obtain accurately the time-dependent many-particle wavefunction of the bosons which in principle entails all the information of interest about the system under investigation. We analyze the tunneling dynamics by preparing the initial state of the bosonic clouds in the left well of the double-well either as the ground, longitudinally or transversely excited, or a vortex state. We unravel the detailed mechanism of the tunneling process by analyzing the evolution in time of the survival probability, depletion and fragmentation, and the many-particle position, momentum, and angular-momentum expectation values and their variances. As a general rule, all objects lose coherence while tunneling through the barrier and the states which include transverse excitations do so faster. Implications are briefly discussed.
The out-of-equilibrium quantum dynamics of an interacting Bose gas trapped in a 1D asymmetric double-well potential is studied by solving the many-body Schrodinger equation numerically accurately. We examine how the loss of symmetry of the confining trap affects the macroscopic quantum tunneling dynamics of the system between the two wells. In an asymmetric DW, the two wells are not equivalent anymore -the left well is deeper than the right one. Accordingly, we analyze the dynamics by initially preparing the condensate in both the left and the right well. We examined the frequencies and amplitudes of the oscillations of the survival probabilities, the time scale for the development of fragmentation and its degree, and the growth and oscillatory behavior of the many-body position and momentum variances. There is an overall suppression of the oscillations of the survival probabilities in an asymmetric double well. However, depending on whether the condensate is initially prepared in the left or right well, the repulsive inter-atomic interactions affect the survival probabilities differently. The degree of fragmentation depends both on the asymmetry of the trap and the initial well in which the condensate is prepared in a non-trivial manner. Overall, the many-body position and momentum variances bear the prominent signatures of the density oscillations of the system in the asymmetric double well as well as a breathing-mode oscillation. Finally, a universality of fragmentation for systems made of different numbers of particles but the same interaction parameter is also found. The phenomenon is robust despite the asymmetry of the junction and admits a macroscopically-large fragmented condensate characterized by a diverging many-body position variance.
We compare the classical (mean-field) dynamics with the quantum dynamics of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in double-well potentials. The quantum dynamics are computed using a simple scheme based upon the Raman-Nath equations. Two different methods for exciting a non-equilbrium state are considered: an asymmetry between the wells which is suddenly removed, and a periodic time oscillating asymmetry. The first method generates wave packets that lead to collapses and revivals of the expectation values of the macroscopic variables, and we calculate the time scale for these revivals. The second method permits the excitation of a single energy eigenstate of the many-particle system, including Schroedinger cat states. We also discuss a band theory interpretation of the energy level structure of an asymmetric double-well, thereby identifying analogies to Bloch oscillations and Bragg resonances. Both the Bloch and Bragg dynamics are purely quantum and are not contained in the mean-field treatment.
We propose a new scheme for observing Josephson oscillations and macroscopic quantum self-trapping phenomena in a toroidally confined Bose-Einstein condensate: a dipolar self-induced Josephson junction. Polarizing the atoms perpendicularly to the trap symmetry axis, an effective ring-shaped, double-well potential is achieved which is induced by the dipolar interaction. By numerically solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation we show that coherent tunneling phenomena such as Josephson oscillations and quantum self-trapping can take place. The dynamics in the self-induced junction can be qualitatively described by a two-mode model taking into account both s-wave and dipolar interactions.