Collision-Dependent Atom Tunnelling Rate in Bose-Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that atom interactions in a double-well potential can enhance tunneling rates, enabling a linear Rabi regime and extending the applicability of the two-mode model to explain experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces the significant role of cross-collisional effects in increasing tunneling rates and extends the two-mode model's validity for describing Bose-Einstein condensate dynamics.

Findings

Cross-collisional interactions can significantly increase tunneling rates.

Enhanced tunneling leads to a linear Rabi regime of population oscillations.

The two-mode model's validity is extended to include nonlinear interaction effects.

Abstract

We show that the interaction (cross-collision) between atoms trapped in distinct sites of a double-well potential can significantly increase the atom tunneling rate for special trap configurations leading to an effective linear Rabi regime of population oscillation between the trap wells. The inclusion of cross-collisional effects significantly extends the validity of the two-mode model approach allowing it to be alternatively employed to explain the recently observed increase of tunneling rates due to nonlinear interactions.