2007/05/22 by Christian Matthies, Sascha Zöllner, Hans‐Dieter Meyer +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.76.023602
published as Phys. Rev. A 76, 023602 (2007) · 8 pages, 7 figures
arxiv created 2007/05/22 · openalex publication_date 2007/08/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We deal with the effects of an anharmonic trap on an interacting two-boson system in one dimension. Our primary focus is on the role of the induced coupling between the center of mass and the relative motion as both anharmonicity and the (repulsive) interaction strength are varied. The ground state reveals a strong localization in the relative coordinate, counteracting the tendency to fragment for stronger repulsion. To explore the quantum dynamics, we study the system's response upon (i) exciting the harmonic ground state by continuously switching on an additional anharmonicity and (ii) displacing the center of mass, this way triggering collective oscillations. The interplay between collective and internal dynamics materializes in the collapse of oscillations, which are explained in terms of few-mode models.