Bose-Einstein condensates on tilted lattices: coherent, chaotic and subdiffusive dynamics

Abstract

The dynamics of a (quasi)one-dimensional interacting atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a tilted optical lattice is studied in a discrete mean-field approximation, i.e., in terms of the discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation. If the static field is varied the system shows a plethora of dynamical phenomena. In the strong field limit we demonstrate the existence of (almost) non-spreading states which remain localized on the lattice region populated initially and show coherent Bloch oscillations with fractional revivals in the momentum space (so called quantum carpets). With decreasing field, the dynamics becomes irregular, however, still confined in configuration space. For even weaker fields we find sub-diffusive dynamics with a wave-packet width spreading as $t^{1/4}$.