Quantum lattice Boltzmann simulation of expanding Bose-Einstein condensates in random potentials

The phenomenon of Anderson localization in expanding one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates is investigated by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a random speckle potential. To this purpose, a quantum lattice Boltzmann (QLB) method is used, and compared with a standard Crank-Nicolson scheme. The QLB simulations show evidence of Anderson localization even for relatively low-energy condensates, with a healing length as large as one-tenth of the Thomas-Fermi length. Moreover, very long-time simulations, lasting up to 15 000 optical confinement periods, indicate that the Anderson localization degrades in time, although at a very slow pace. In particular, the inverse localization length is found to decay according to a t;{-1/3} law. This lends support to the idea that localized wave functions, although not strictly ground states, represent extremely long-lived metastable states of the expanding condensate.