Spinor BECs in a double-well: population transfer and Josephson oscillations

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dynamics of F=1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential, deriving two-mode equations to describe population transfer and Josephson oscillations, and analyzing their behavior under various conditions.

Contribution

The study introduces a two-mode analytical framework for spinor BECs in a double-well, linking microscopic interactions to macroscopic dynamical phenomena.

Findings

Two-mode equations accurately describe population and phase dynamics.

Population evolution decouples from Josephson tunneling.

Time scales are linked to atom-atom interaction properties.

Abstract

The dynamics of an F=1 spinor condensate in a two-well potential is studied within the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We derive two-mode equations relating the population imbalances, the phase differences among the condensates at each side of the barrier and the time evolution of the different Zeeman populations for the case of small population imbalances. The case of zero total magnetization is scrutinized in this limit demonstrating the ability of a two mode analysis to describe to a large extent the dynamics observed in the Gross-Pitaevskii equations. It is also demonstrated that the time evolution of the different total populations fully decouples from the Josephson tunneling phenomena. All the relevant time scales are clearly identified with microscopic properties of the atom-atom interactions.