Quantum spin mixing in a binary mixture of spin-1 atomic condensates

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum spin mixing in a binary mixture of spin-1 atomic condensates, demonstrating how interspecies interactions can be characterized through mixing dynamics in a simplified model.

Contribution

It introduces a model for quantum spin mixing in binary spin-1 condensates and shows how to extract interspecies interactions from dynamics.

Findings

Interspecies singlet-pairing interactions can be determined from mixing dynamics.

Spin-exchange interactions are accessible via initial state preparation and observation.

The dynamics reduce to coupled nonlinear pendulums with clear physical interpretations.

Abstract

We study quantum spin mixing in a binary mixture of spin-1 condensates including coherent interspecies mixing process, using the familiar spinor condensates of $^{87}$Rb and $^{23}$Na atoms in the ground lower hyperfine F=1 manifolds as prototype examples. Within the single spatial mode approximation for each of the two spinor condensates, the mixing dynamics reduce to that of three coupled nonlinear pendulums with clear physical interpretations. Using suitably prepared initial states, it is possible to determine the interspecies singlet-pairing as well as spin-exchange interactions from the subsequent mixing dynamics.