Propagation of atomic matter waves inside an atom wave guide

Abstract

The phenomenological description of propagation of atomic matter waves inside a curved atom wave guide is presented based on the effective action principle. The evolutions in both temporal and spatial domains for the atomic matter wave in the presence of guiding potential fields (classical and quantized) are considered. The coherent control of three-level atomic matter waves in a wave guide by an external controlling light is briefly discussed. The concepts of {\it atomic matter-wave bandgap structure} in a spatially periodic guiding field ({\it e.g.}, the interior potential of carbon peapod which can trap both atoms and light) and {\it optical lattice bandgap medium} are suggested.