Vibrational state inversion of a Bose-Einstein condensate: optimal control and state tomography

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates high-fidelity vibrational state transfer in a Bose-Einstein condensate using optimal control, supported by theoretical modeling and experimental validation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of optimal control theory to achieve precise vibrational state transfer in BECs, with a simplified two-level system model.

Findings

High-fidelity transfer achieved experimentally and theoretically

Excellent agreement between model and experiment

Effective mapping to a driven two-level system

Abstract

We present theoretical and experimental results on high-fidelity transfer of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate into its first vibrationally excited eigenstate. The excitation is driven by mechanical motion of the trap, along a trajectory obtained from optimal control theory. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is found over a large range of parameters. We develop an approximate model to map the dynamics of the many-body condensate wave function to a driven two-level system.