Control of the Bose-Einstein condensate by dissipation. Nonlinear Zeno effect

Abstract

We show that controlled dissipation can be used as a tool for exploring fundamental phenomena and managing mesoscopic systems of cold atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates. Even the simplest boson-Josephson junction, that is, a Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well trap, subjected to removal of atoms from one of the two potential minima allows one to observe such phenomena as the suppression of losses and the nonlinear Zeno effect. In such a system the controlled dissipation can be used to create desired macroscopic states and implement controlled switching among different quantum regimes.