Interaction-induced quantum ratchet in a Bose-Einstein condensate

Journal Article · Wed Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.76.023421· OSTI ID:21016001

Poletti, Dario ^[1]; Benenti, Giuliano ^[2]; Casati, Giulio ^[2]; Baowen, Li ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Centre for Computational Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117542 (Singapore)
2. CNISM, CNR-INFM and Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, Universita degli Studi dell'Insubria, Via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como (Italy)

We study the dynamics of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a toroidal trap and exposed to a pair of periodically flashed optical lattices. We first prove that in the noninteracting case this system can present a quantum symmetry which forbids the ratchet effect classically expected. We then show how many-body atom-atom interactions, treated within the mean-field approximation, can break this quantum symmetry, thus generating directed transport.

• OSTI ID: 21016001
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 76, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.023421; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
APPROXIMATIONS
ATOM-ATOM COLLISIONS
ATOMS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
INTERACTIONS
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
PERIODICITY
SYMMETRY
TRAPS