Mean-field effects may mimic number squeezing in Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices

Abstract

This paper presents a mean-field numerical analysis, using the full three-dimensional time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE), of an experiment carried out by Orzel et al. [Science 291, 2386 (2001)] intended to show number squeezing in a gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice. The motivation for the present work is to elucidate the role of mean-field effects in understanding the experimental results of this work and those of related experiments. We show that the non-adiabatic loading of atoms into optical lattices reproduces many of the main results of the Orzel et al. experiment, including both loss of interference patterns as laser intensity is increased and their regeneration when intensities are lowered. The non-adiabaticity found in the GPE simulations manifests itself primarily in a coupling between the transverse and longitudinal dynamics, indicating that one-dimensional approximations are inadequate to model the experiment.