Particle-localized ground state of atom-molecule Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential

Abstract

We study the effect of atom-molecule internal tunneling on the ground state of atom-molecule Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential. In the absence of internal tunneling between atomic and molecular states, the ground state is symmetric, which has equal-particle populations in two wells. From the linear stability analysis, we show that the symmetric stationary state becomes dynamically unstable at a certain value of the atom-molecule internal tunneling strength. Above the critical value of the internal tunneling strength, the ground state bifurcates to the particle-localized ground states. The origin of this transition can be attributed to the effective attractive interatomic interaction induced by the atom-molecule internal tunneling. This effective interaction is similar to that familiar in the context of BCS-BEC crossover in a Fermi gas with Feshbach resonance. Furthermore, we point out the possibility of reentrant transition in the case of the large detuning between the atomic and molecular states.