Mechanism of Tunneling in Interacting Open Ultracold Few-Boson Systems

Abstract

We investigate the mechanism in the tunneling dynamics of open ultracold few-boson systems by numerically solving the time-dependent few-boson Schrödinger equation exactly. By starting from a weakly repulsive, initially coherent two-boson system we demonstrate that the decay dynamics incorporate fragmentation. The wavefunction of the tunneling state exhibits a pronounced dynamically-stable pattern which we explain by an analytical model. By studying more bosons and stronger interactions we arrive to the conclusion that the decay by tunneling is not a coherent process and exhibits a wealth of phenomena depending on the interaction between the particles.

11 pages, 3 figures