The non-Abelian bosonic quantum ring

TL;DR

This paper explores the dynamics of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate in a ring trap influenced by a non-Abelian gauge potential, revealing stable currents and soliton-like structures through exact solutions and population analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a hydrodynamic model for a spinor BEC with non-Abelian gauge fields in a ring trap, providing exact eigenstates and analyzing complex population and current dynamics.

Findings

Stable mass currents induced by non-Abelian magnetic fields

Observation of space-dependent Josephson oscillations

Formation of two-component dark soliton-like objects under strong interactions

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate which is governed by an optically induced non-Abelian gauge potential. Using a ring shaped trap to confine the atoms and a hydrodynamic ansatz, nonlinear Josephson type equations are found to describe the system. The degenerate eigenstates which show rotation are solved exactly. We consider a homogenous filled ring and observe population dynamics between the two quasi-spin components but also space dependent Josephson oscillations. Stable mass currents can be observed which are induced by the constant non-Abelian effective magnetic field in the limit of weak interactions. For strong interactions the appearance of two-component dark soliton-like objects are observed.