Self-trapping of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate in a double well

Abstract

We study the Josephson oscillation and self-trapping dynamics of a cigar-shaped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate of 52Cr atoms polarized along the symmetry axis of an axially symmetric double-well potential using the numerical solution of a mean-field model, for dominating repulsive contact interaction (large positive scattering length a) over an anisotropic dipolar interaction. Josephson-type oscillation emerges for small and very large numbers of atoms, whereas self-trapping is noted for an intermediate number of atoms. The dipolar interaction pushes the system away from self-trapping towards Josephson oscillation. We consider a simple two-mode description for a qualitative understanding of the dynamics. © 2014 American Physical Society.