Bose Condensate in a Double-Well Trap: Ground State and Elementary Excitations

TL;DR

This paper investigates the properties of Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well trap, focusing on ground state profiles, elementary excitations, and phenomena like quantum tunneling and self-trapping.

Contribution

It provides detailed calculations of the ground state and excitation spectrum of a BEC in a double-well trap, highlighting the effects of barrier strength.

Findings

Ground state density profiles for $^{23}$Na atoms are computed.

The Bogoliubov spectrum of elementary excitations is analyzed.

Criteria for observing macroscopic quantum tunneling and self-trapping are discussed.

Abstract

We study the Bose-Einstein condensate in the MIT double-well trap. We calculate the ground state density profile of $^{23}$Na atoms and the Bogoliubov spectrum of the elementary excitations as function of the strength of the double-well barrier. In particular, we analyze the behavior of quantum-mechanical collective excitations. Finally, we discuss the observability criteria for macroscopic quantum tunneling and macroscopic quantum self-trapping.