Discrete chaotic states of a Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We examine spatial chaos in a one-dimensional attractive Bose-Einstein condensate interacting with a Gaussian-like laser barrier and perturbed by a weak optical lattice. For a low laser barrier, chaotic regions of the parameters are demonstrated and the chaotic and regular states are illustrated numerically. In the high-barrier case, bounded perturbed solutions that describe a set of discrete chaotic states are constructed for discrete barrier heights and magic numbers of condensed atoms. Chaotic density profiles are exhibited numerically for the lowest quantum number, and analytically bounded but numerically unbounded Gaussian-like configurations are confirmed. It is shown that the chaotic wave packets can be controlled experimentally by adjusting the laser barrier potential.