Dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates under anharmonic trap

Abstract

The dynamics of weakly interacting three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), trapped in external axially symmetric plus anharmonic distortion potential are studied. Within a variational approach and time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation, the coupled condensate width equations are derived. By modulating anharmonic distortion of the trapping potential, nonlinear features are studied numerically and illustrated analytically, such as mode coupling of oscillation modes, and resonances. Furthermore, the stability of attractive interaction BEC in both repulsive and attractive anharmonic distortion is examined. We demonstrate that a small repulsive and attractive anharmonic distortion is effective in reducing (extending) the condensate stability region since it decreases (increases) the critical number of atoms in the trapping potential.