Symmetry-Breaking and Symmetry-Restoring Dynamics of a Mixture of Bose-Einstein Condensates in a Double Well

Published

March 16, 2009

Author(s)

Indubala I. Satija, Radha Balakrishnan, P. Naudus, Jeffrey Heward, M Edwards, Charles W. Clark

Abstract

We study the coherent nonlinear tunneling dynamics of a binary mixture of Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential. We demonstrate the existence of a new type of coherence associated with the symmetry restoring nonlinear swapping modes where the two species either chase each other or avoid each other, as they tunnel between the two wells of the con ning potential. Furthermore, there are two distinct types of broken symmetry, macroscopic quantum self-trapping (MQST) phases corresponding to the phase separation or coexistence of the two species. In view of the possibility to control the interaction between the species, the binary mixture offers a very robust system to observe these novel effects as well as the phenomena of Josephson oscillations and -modes.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

79

Issue

033616

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

BEC, coherent oscillations, tunneling

Citation

Satija, I. , Balakrishnan, R. , Naudus, P. , Heward, J. , Edwards, M. and Clark, C. (2009), Symmetry-Breaking and Symmetry-Restoring Dynamics of a Mixture of Bose-Einstein Condensates in a Double Well, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics), [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=900255 (Accessed October 18, 2025)