Tachyonic and parametric instabilities in an extended bosonic Josephson junction

Abstract

We study the dynamics and decay of quantum phase coherence for Bose-Einstein condensates in tunnel-coupled quantum wires. The two elongated Bose-Einstein condensates exhibit a wide variety of dynamic phenomena where quantum fluctuations can lead to a rapid loss of phase coherence. We investigate the phenomenon of self-trapping in the relative population imbalance of the two condensates, particularly $π$-trapped oscillations that occur when also the relative phase is trapped. Though this state appears stable in mean-field descriptions, the $π$-trapped state becomes dynamically unstable due to quantum fluctuations. Nonequilibrium instabilities result in the generation of pairs excited from the condensate to higher momentum modes. We identify tachyonic instabilities, which are associated with imaginary parts of the dispersion relation, and parametric resonance instabilities that are triggered by oscillations of the relative phase and populations. At early times, we compute the instability chart of the characteristic modes through a linearized analysis and identify the underlying physical process. At later times, the primary instabilities trigger secondary instabilities due to the build-up of non-linearities. We perform numerical simulations in the Truncated Wigner approximation in order to observe the dynamics also in this non-linear regime. Furthermore, we discuss realistic parameters for experimental realizations of the $π$-trapped state in ultracold atom setups.