2012/07/17 by Aaron Reinhard, Jean-Félix Riou, Laura A. Zundel +5 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Lattice (music) #Molecular physics #Optical lattice #Physics #Quantum #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Superfluidity #Transverse plane #Trapping #Ultracold atom #cond-mat.quant-gas #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.110.033001
arxiv created 2012/07/17 · openalex publication_date 2013/01/14 · arxiv updated 2015/06/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the transverse expansion of arrays of ultracold (87)Rb atoms weakly confined in tubes created by a 2D optical lattice and observe that transverse expansion is delayed because of mutual atom interactions. A mean-field model of a coupled array shows that atoms become localized within a roughly square fortlike self-trapping barrier with time-evolving edges. But the observed dynamics are poorly described by the mean-field model. The theoretical introduction of random phase fluctuations among tubes improves the agreement with experiment but does not correctly predict the density at which the atoms start to expand with larger lattice depths. Our results suggest a new type of self-trapping, where quantum correlations suppress tunneling even when there are no density gradients.