Pazy E, Tikhonenkov I, Band YB, Fleischhauer M, Vardi A. Nonlinear adiabatic passage from fermion atoms to boson molecules.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2005;
95:170403. [PMID:
16383800 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.95.170403]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2005] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
We study the dynamics of an adiabatic sweep through a Feshbach resonance in a quantum gas of fermionic atoms. Analysis of the dynamical equations, supported by mean-field and many-body numerical results, shows that the dependence of the remaining atomic fraction Gamma on the sweep rate alpha varies from exponential Landau-Zener behavior for a single pair of particles to a power-law dependence for large particle number N. The power law is linear, Gamma is proportional to alpha, when the initial molecular fraction is smaller than the 1/N quantum fluctuations, and Gamma is proportional to alpha(1/3) when it is larger. Experimental data agree well with a linear dependence, but do not conclusively rule out the Landau-Zener model.
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