Subdiffusive spreading of a Bose-Einstein condensate in random potentials

We study numerically the long-time dynamics of a one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate expanding in a speckle or impurity disorder potential. Using the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we demonstrate subdiffusive spreading of the condensate for long times. We find that interaction-assisted hopping between normal modes leads to this subdiffusion. A possible (partial) reason why the root-mean-square (rms) width saturates in the experiment [Nature (London) 453, 891 (2008)] is provided. We suggest that observing both the participation length and the rms width of a condensate, rather than only the rms width, could provide a more complete description of the long-time behavior of ultracold atoms in disorder potentials. Our study confirms subdiffusive spreading in spatially continuous disordered interacting models and highlights new features which spatially discrete models do not possess.OpticsPhysics, Atomic, Molecular & ChemicalSCI(E)6ARTICLE5null8