Time-dependent multi-orbital mean-field for fragmented Bose-Einstein condensates

Alon, O. E.; Streltsov, A. I.; Cederbaum, L. S.

Time-dependent multi-orbital mean-field for fragmented Bose-Einstein condensates

Authors

Alon, O. E.

Streltsov, A. I.

Cederbaum, L. S.

Description

The evolution of Bose-Einstein condensates is usually described by the famous time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which assumes all bosons to reside in a single time-dependent orbital. In the present work we address the evolution of fragmented condensates, for which two (or more) orbitals are occupied, and derive a corresponding time-dependent multi-orbital mean-field theory. We call our theory TDMF($n$), where $n$ stands for the number of evolving fragments. Working equations for a general two-body interaction between the bosons are explicitly presented along with an illustrative numerical example.
16 pages, 1 figure