906 research outputs found
Self-trapping of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices
The self-trapping phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in optical
lattices is studied extensively by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii
equation. Our numerical results not only reproduce the phenomenon that was
observed in a recent experiment [Anker {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 94}
(2005)020403], but also find that the self-trapping breaks down at long
evolution times, that is, the self-trapping in optical lattices is only
temporary. The analysis of our numerical results shows that the self-trapping
in optical lattices is related to the self-trapping of BECs in a double-well
potential. A possible mechanism of the formation of steep edges in the wave
packet evolution is explored in terms of the dynamics of relative phases
between neighboring wells.Comment: 8 pages, 15 figure
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