Nonlinearity from quantum mechanics: Dynamically unstable Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well trap

Abstract

We study theoretically an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well trap both quantum mechanically and classically under conditions such that in the classical model an unstable equilibrium dissolves into large-scale oscillations of the atoms between the potential wells. Quantum mechanics alone does not exhibit such nonlinear dynamics, but measurements of the atom numbers in the potential wells may nevertheless cause the condensate to behave essentially classically.

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References in corpus (4)

• Atom interferometry with a weakly-interacting Bose Einstein condensate
• On the correspondence principle: implications from a study of the chaotic dynamics of a macroscopic quantum device
• Nonlinear Phenomenology from Quantum Mechanics: Soliton in a Lattice
• Pulsating instability of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice