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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Nikolaos ProukakisORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2025 by the authors.We investigate how collisional interactions between the condensate and the thermal cloud influence the distinct dynamical regimes (Josephson plasma, phase-slip-induced dissipative regime, and macroscopic quantum self-trapping) emerging in ultracold atomic Josephson junctions at non-zero subcritical temperatures. Specifically, we discuss how the self-consistent dynamical inclusion of collisional processes facilitating the exchange of particles between the condensate and the thermal cloud impacts both the condensate and the thermal currents, demonstrating that their relative importance depends on the system’s dynamical regime. Our study is performed within the full context of the Zaremba–Nikuni–Griffin (ZNG) formalism, which couples a dissipative Gross–Pitaevskii equation for the condensate dynamics to a quantum Boltzmann equation with collisional terms for the thermal cloud. In the Josephson plasma oscillation and vortex-induced dissipative regimes, collisions markedly alter dynamics at intermediate-to-high temperatures, amplifying damping in the condensate imbalance mode and inducing measurable frequency shifts. In the self-trapping regime, collisions destabilize the system even at low temperatures, prompting a transition to Josephson-like dynamics on a temperature-dependent timescale. Our results show the interplay between coherence, dissipation, and thermal effects in a Bose–Einstein condensate at a finite temperature, providing a framework for tailoring Josephson junction dynamics in experimentally accessible regimes.
Author(s): Xhani K, Proukakis NP
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Atoms
Year: 2025
Volume: 13
Issue: 8
Online publication date: 22/07/2025
Acceptance date: 10/07/2025
Date deposited: 08/09/2025
ISSN (electronic): 2218-2004
Publisher: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/atoms13080068
DOI: 10.3390/atoms13080068
Data Access Statement: Data presented in this paper are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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