Bose-Einstein condensates in a one-dimensional double square well: Analytical solutions of the Nonlinear Schrödinger equation and tunneling splittings

Abstract

We present a representative set of analytic stationary state solutions of the Nonlinear Schrödinger equation for a symmetric double square well potential for both attractive and repulsive nonlinearity. In addition to the usual symmetry preserving even and odd states, nonlinearity introduces quite exotic symmetry breaking solutions - among them are trains of solitons with different number and sizes of density lumps in the two wells. We use the symmetry breaking localized solutions to form macroscopic quantum superpositions states and explore a simple model for the exponentially small tunneling splitting.