DYNAMICS OF NONLINEAR TUNNELING OF BOSE-CONDENSED ATOMS IN A DOUBLE-WELL TRAP

The dynamics of tunneling of Bose-condensed atoms in a double-well trap is studied with allowance for the processes of elastic interatomic interaction in each well and nonlinear pair tunneling through the barrier between the wells. Solutions of the resulting system of nonlinear evolution equations describing nonstationary tunneling show that there are both periodic and aperiodic modes of evolution of the difference between the populations of the wells. The features of the time evolution of the system are determined by the initial population difference, the initial phase difference, and the nonlinearity parameter of the system. The possibility of the existence of quantum self-trapping and phase control of the system dynamics is indicated.