Nonlinear dynamics of a spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

Single-particle dynamics of a spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate has recently been investigated in experiments that explore the physics of Landau-Zener tunneling and of the Zitterbewegung. In this paper, we study the influence of a nonlinearity due to interactions on these dynamics and show that the dispersion relation develops interesting loop strucures. The atoms can move along the nonlinear dispersion curve in the presence of a weak acceleration force and we show that the loops lead to straightforward nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling. However, we find that for the Zitterbewegung, induced by a sudden quench in the spin-orbit coupling parameters, the nonlinear dispersion is irrelevant.