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Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 040401 (2008) [4 pages]

Few-Boson Dynamics in Double Wells: From Single-Atom to Correlated Pair Tunneling

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Sascha Zöllner1,*, Hans-Dieter Meyer1, and Peter Schmelcher1,2
1Theoretische Chemie, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 229, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
2Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 12, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Received 20 September 2007; published 29 January 2008

We investigate few-boson tunneling in a one-dimensional double well, covering the full crossover from weak interactions to the fermionization limit of strong correlations. Based on exact quantum-dynamical calculations, it is found that the tunneling dynamics of two atoms evolves from Rabi oscillations to correlated pair tunneling as we increase the interaction strength. Near the fermionization limit, fragmented-pair tunneling is observed and analyzed in terms of the population imbalance and two-body correlations. For more atoms, the tunneling dynamics near fermionization is shown to be sensitive to both atom number and initial configuration.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.040401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.040401
PACS:
03.75.Lm, 03.65.Xp, 05.30.Jp

*sascha.zoellner@pci.uni-heidelberg.de