2003/11/30 by Anatoli Polkovnikov, Daw-Wei Wang · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.070401
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 070401 (2004) · 4 pages, 5 figures, final version to appear in PRL
arxiv created 2004/07/30 · openalex publication_date 2004/08/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We reexamine dipolar motion of condensate atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices and harmonic magnetic traps including quantum fluctuations within the truncated Wigner approximation. In the strong tunneling limit we reproduce the mean field results with a sharp dynamical transition at the critical displacement. When the tunneling is reduced, on the contrary, strong quantum fluctuations lead to finite damping of condensate oscillations even at infinitesimal displacement. We argue that there is a smooth crossover between the chaotic classical transition at finite displacement and the superfluid-to-insulator phase transition at zero displacement. We further analyze the time dependence of the density fluctuations and of the coherence of the condensate and find several nontrivial dynamical effects, which can be observed in the present experimental conditions.