https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2006-00226-8
Emergence of superfluid transport in a dynamical system of ultra-cold atoms
1
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
2
Centre of Theoretical Chemistry and Physics, Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
3
Kirensky Institute of Physics, 660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Corresponding author: a J.Brand@massey.ac.nz
Received:
31
January
2006
Published online:
4
October
2006
The dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate is studied theoretically in a combined periodic plus harmonic external potential. Different dynamical regimes of stable and unstable collective dipole and Bloch oscillations are analysed in terms of a quantum mechanical pendulum model. Nonlinear interactions are shown to counteract quantum-mechanical dephasing and lead to phase-coherent, superfluid transport.
PACS: 03.75.Lm – Tunnelling, Josephson effect, Bose-Einstein condensates in periodic potentials, solitons, vortices and topological excitations / 05.45.-a – Nonlinear dynamics and chaos
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2006
