Transport of trapped ultracold atoms using a counterdiabatic driving approach

The emerging field of atomtronics involves atom analogues of electronic materials, circuits, and devices. Research on and development of atomtronic technologies typically require systems of ultracold atoms being transported in a matter wave waveguide. Furthermore, rapid transport of the atoms is necessary for short cycle times of the experiment or atomtronic process. As a result of repulsive atomic interactions, the electrically neutral atom cloud expands as it moves within the waveguide, which can lead to decoherence of the system. One way to solve this is to keep the atoms trapped in a confining potential, but rapid motion while inside a trap leads to unwanted excitations such as center-of-mass oscillations or ‘sloshing’. Here, we present an analysis of a fast transport scheme for trapped Bose-Einstein condensates that involves the use of an additional potential to counteract excitations coming from fast motion. By solving the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation numerically, we show that the transport protocol preserves the quantum fidelity of the trapped atoms up to a certain speed limit, and possible mechanisms of decoherence during transport are analyzed.