Diffusion in a system of a few distinguishable fermions in a one-dimensional double-well potential

Dynamical properties of a few ultra-cold fermions confined in a double-well potential are studied. We show that the dynamics, which is governed by single-particle tunnelings for vanishing interactions, is completely different for strong interactions. Depending on the details of the configuration, for sufficiently strong interactions (repulsions or attractions) the particle flow through the barrier can be accelerated or slowed down. This effect cannot be explained with the single-particle picture. It is clarified with a direct inspection of the spectrum of the few-body Hamiltonian. open access Copyright (C) EPLA, 2016 Published by the EPLA under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (CC BY). Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.