Asymmetric tunneling of Bose–Einstein condensates

Abstract

In his celebrated textbook, Quantum Mechanics: Nonrelativistic Theory, Landau argued that, for single particle systems in 1D, tunneling probability remains the same for a particle incident from the left or the right of a barrier. This left-right symmetry of tunneling probability holds regardless of the shape of the potential barrier. However, there are a variety of known cases that break this symmetry, e.g. when observing composite particles. We computationally (and analytically, in the simplest case) show this breaking of the left-right tunneling symmetry for Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in 1D, modeled by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE). By varying g, the parameter of inter-particle interaction in the BEC, we demonstrate that the transition from symmetric (g = 0) to asymmetric tunneling is a threshold phenomenon. Our computations employ experimentally feasible parameters such that these results may be experimentally demonstrated in the near future. We conclude by suggesting applications of the phenomena to design atomtronic diodes, synthetic gauge fields, Maxwell’s demons, and black-hole analogues.