Metastable States and Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in a Cold-Atom Josephson Ring

Journal Article · Fri Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.104.150405· OSTI ID:21410709

Solenov, Dmitry; Mozyrsky, Dmitry ^[1]

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1. Theoretical Division (T-4), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

We study macroscopic properties of a system of weakly interacting neutral bosons confined in a ring-shaped potential with a Josephson junction. We derive an effective low energy action for this system and evaluate its properties. In particular, we find that the system possesses a set of metastable current-carrying states and evaluate the rates of transitions between these states due to macroscopic quantum tunneling and thermal activation mechanism. Finally, we discuss signatures of different metastable states in the time-of-flight images and argue that the effect is observable within currently available experimental technique.

• OSTI ID: 21410709
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 15; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.150405; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOMS
BOSONS
CURRENTS
JOSEPHSON JUNCTIONS
METASTABLE STATES
POTENTIALS
TIME-OF-FLIGHT METHOD
TUNNEL EFFECT
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITED STATES
SUPERCONDUCTING JUNCTIONS