2005/03/09 by E. Pazy, I Tikhonenkov, I. Tikhonenkov +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.95.170403
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 170403 (2005) · 5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2005/03/09 · openalex publication_date 2005/10/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the dynamics of an adiabatic sweep through a Feshbach resonance in a quantum gas of fermionic atoms. Analysis of the dynamical equations, supported by mean-field and many-body numerical results, shows that the dependence of the remaining atomic fraction Gamma on the sweep rate alpha varies from exponential Landau-Zener behavior for a single pair of particles to a power-law dependence for large particle number N. The power law is linear, Gamma is proportional to alpha, when the initial molecular fraction is smaller than the 1/N quantum fluctuations, and Gamma is proportional to alpha(1/3) when it is larger. Experimental data agree well with a linear dependence, but do not conclusively rule out the Landau-Zener model.