Unstable avoided crossing in coupled spinor condensates

Nathan R. Bernier, Emanuele G. Dalla Torre, Eugene Demler

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

We consider the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate with two internal states, coupled through a coherent drive. We focus on a specific quench protocol, in which the sign of the coupling field is suddenly changed. At a mean-field level, the system is transferred from a minimum to a maximum of the coupling energy and can remain dynamically stable, in spite of the development of negative-frequency modes. In the presence of a nonzero detuning between the two states, the "charge" and "spin" modes couple, giving rise to an unstable avoided crossing. This phenomenon is generic to systems with two dispersing modes away from equilibrium and constitutes an example of class-Io nonequilibrium pattern formation in quantum systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number065303
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume113
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 8 Aug 2014
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science Foundation1125846

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