Josephson tunnelling of dark solitons in a double-well potential

We study the dynamics of matter waves in an effectively one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. We consider in particular the case when one of the double wells confines excited states. Similar to the known ground state oscillations, the states can tunnel between the well...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Susanto, Hadi, Cuevas-Maraver, Jesús, Krüger, Peter A. C.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/24840
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11441/24840
https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/44/9/095003
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Solitons
potential theory (Physics)
Bose-Einstein condensation
Electronic excitation
Josephson effect
Tunneling (Physics)
Numerical analysis
Descripción
Sumario:We study the dynamics of matter waves in an effectively one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. We consider in particular the case when one of the double wells confines excited states. Similar to the known ground state oscillations, the states can tunnel between the wells experiencing the physics known for electrons in a Josephson junction, or be self-trapped. As the existence of dark solitons in a harmonic trap is a continuation of such non-ground state excitations, one can view the Josephson-like oscillations as tunnellings of dark solitons. Numerical existence and stability analysis based on the full equation is performed, where it is shown that such tunnelling can be stable. Through a numerical path-following method, unstable tunnelling is also obtained in different parameter regions. A coupled-mode system is derived and compared to the numerical observations. Regions of (in)stability of Josephson tunnelling are discussed and highlighted. Finally, we outline an experimental scheme designed to explore such dark soliton dynamics in the laboratory.