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Title: Comparative study of dynamical simulation methods for the dissociation of molecular Bose-Einstein condensates

Journal Article · · Physical Review. A
; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072 (Australia)

We describe a pairing mean-field theory related to the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach, and apply it to the dynamics of dissociation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate into correlated bosonic atom pairs. We also perform the same simulation using two stochastic phase-space techniques for quantum dynamics - the positive-P representation method and the truncated Wigner method. By comparing the results of our calculations we are able to assess the relative strengths of these theoretical techniques in describing molecular dissociation in one spatial dimension. An important aspect of our analysis is the inclusion of atom-atom interactions, which can be problematic for the positive-P method. We find that the truncated Wigner method mostly agrees with the positive-P simulations, but can be simulated for significantly longer times. The pairing mean-field theory results diverge from the quantum dynamical methods after relatively short times.

OSTI ID:
21308489
Journal Information:
Physical Review. A, Vol. 79, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.79.053632; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English