Microwave control of coupling parameters in spinor alkali condensates

Abstract

We propose a protocol which utilises radio frequency magnetic pulses in order to tune the effective two-particle scattering amplitudes for alkali atoms in the $F=1$ hyperfine ground state. Unlike the Feshbach resonance method, the proposed protocol preserves with controllable accuracy the global rotational symmetry in the spin space offering access to a broad region of the phase diagram of the rotationally-symmetric spinor Bose condensate. Examples of $^{41}$K and $^{7}$Li are considered and it is shown that for these atoms sufficient variation in the effective coupling constants can be achieved in order to explore phase transitions between different symmetry-broken phases of the condensate.