Resonance states and quantum tunneling of Bose-Einstein condensates in a three-dimensional shallow trap

Journal Article · Fri Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.82.043616· OSTI ID:21450837

Haldar, Sudip Kumar; Chakrabarti, Barnali ^[1]; Das, Tapan Kumar ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Lady Brabourne College, P-1/2 Suhrawardy Avenue, Calcutta 700017 (India)
2. Department of Physics, University of Calcutta, 92 A.P.C. Road, Calcutta 700009 (India)

A correlated quantum many-body method is applied to describe resonance states of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in a realistic shallow trap (as opposed to the infinite traps commonly used). The realistic van der Waals interaction is adopted as the interatomic interaction. We calculate experimentally measurable decay rates of the lowest quasibound state in the shallow trap. The most striking result is the observation of a metastable branch besides the usual one for attractive BEC in a pure harmonic trap. As the particle number increases the metastable branch appears and then gradually disappears, and finally the usual metastable branch (associated with the attractive BEC in a harmonic trap) appears, eventually leading to the collapse of the condensate.

• OSTI ID: 21450837
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 82; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITED STATES
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
MECHANICS
METASTABLE STATES
QUANTUM MECHANICS
QUASIBOUND STATE
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TRAPS
TUNNEL EFFECT
VAN DER WAALS FORCES