Collisionally inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates in double-well potentials

C Wang
PG Kevrekidis, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
N Whitaker
DJ Frantzeskakis
S Middelkamp
P Schmelcher

Article comments

This is the prepublished version harvested from ArXiv. The published version is located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physd.2008.11.003,

Abstract

In this work, we consider quasi-one-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs), with spatially varying collisional interactions, trapped in double-well potentials. In particular, we study a setup in which such a “collisionally inhomogeneous” BEC has the same (attractive–attractive or repulsive–repulsive) or different (attractive–repulsive) types of interparticle interactions. Our analysis is based on the continuation of the symmetric ground state and anti-symmetric first excited state of the non-interacting (linear) limit into their nonlinear counterparts. The collisional inhomogeneity produces a saddle–node bifurcation scenario between two additional solution branches; as the inhomogeneity becomes stronger, the turning point of the saddle–node tends to infinity and eventually only the two original branches remain, which is completely different from the standard double-well phenomenology. Finally, one of these branches changes its monotonicity as a function of the chemical potential, a feature especially prominent, when the sign of the nonlinearity changes between the two wells. Our theoretical predictions, are in excellent agreement with the numerical results.