Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 070406 (2008) [4 pages]Pulsating Instability of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in an Optical LatticeReceived 5 February 2008; published 15 August 2008 We find numerically that in the limit of weak atom-atom interactions a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice may develop a pulsating dynamical instability in which the atoms nearly periodically form a peak in the occupation numbers of the lattice sites, and then return to the unstable initial state. Multiple peaks behaving similarly are also found. Simple arguments show that the pulsating instability is a remnant of integrability, and give a handle on the relevant physical scales. © 2008 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.070406
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.070406
PACS:
03.75.Lm, 03.75.Kk, 05.45.Yv
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