Nonadiabatic effects in the dynamics of atoms confined in a cylindric time-orbiting-potential magnetic trap

TL;DR

This paper analytically investigates nonadiabatic effects on atomic dynamics in a cylindric time-orbiting-potential magnetic trap, highlighting the role of Berry's phase and deriving quantum ground states through a variational approach.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analytical framework incorporating nonadiabatic spin effects and Berry's phase into the quantum description of atoms in a TOV magnetic trap.

Findings

Derived dynamical equations for atomic position and spin variables.

Obtained quantum ground state configurations consistent with classical adiabatic solutions.

Performed numerical simulations illustrating nonadiabatic effects.

Abstract

In a time-orbiting-potential magnetic trap the neutral atoms are confined by means of an inhomogeneous magnetic field superimposed to an uniform rotating one. We perform an analytic study of the atomic motion by taking into account the nonadiabatic effects arising from the spin dynamics about the local magnetic field. Geometric-like magnetic-fields determined by the Berry's phase appear within the quantum description. The application of a variational procedure on the original quantum equation leads to a set of dynamical evolution equations for the quantum average value of the position operator and of the spin variables. Within this approximation we derive the quantum-mechanical ground state configuration matching the classical adiabatic solution and perform some numerical simulations.