Interaction induced fractional Bloch and tunneling oscillations

Abstract

We study the dynamics of few interacting bosons in a one-dimensional lattice with dc bias. In the absence of interactions the system displays single particle Bloch oscillations. For strong interaction the Bloch oscillation regime reemerges with fractional Bloch periods which are inversely proportional to the number of bosons clustered into a bound state. The interaction strength is affecting the oscillation amplitude. Excellent agreement is found between numerical data and a composite particle dynamics approach. For specific values of the interaction strength a particle will tunnel from the interacting cloud to a well defined distant lattice location.