Strong-coupling dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well trap

Dynamics of the repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a double-well trap is explored within the 3D time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The model avoids numerous common approximations (two-mode treatment, time-space factorization, fixed values of the chemical potential and barrier penetrability, etc) and thus provides a realistic description of BEC dynamics, including both weak-coupling (sub-barrier) and strong-coupling (above-barrier) regimes and their crossover. The strong coupling regime is achieved by increasing the number $N$ of BEC atoms and thus the chemical potential. The evolution with $N$ of Josephson oscillations (JO) and Macroscopic Quantum Self-Trapping (MQST) is examined and the crucial impact of the BEC interaction is demonstrated. At weak coupling, the calculations well reproduce the JO/MQST experimental data. At strong coupling, with a significant overlap of the left and right BECs, we observe a remarkable persistence of the Josephson-like dynamics: the JO and MQST converge to a high-frequency JO-like mode where both population imbalance and phase difference oscillate around the zero averages. The results open new avenues for BEC interferometry.

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