Quantum dynamics of attractive versus repulsive bosonic Josephson junctions: Bose-Hubbard and full-Hamiltonian results

The quantum dynamics of one-dimensional bosonic Josephson junctions with attractive and repulsive interparticle interactions is studied by using the Bose-Hubbard model and by numerically exact computations of the full many-body Hamiltonian. A symmetry present in the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian dictates an equivalence between the evolution in time of the survival probability and the fragmentation of attractive and repulsive Josephson junctions with attractive and repulsive interactions of equal magnitude. The full many-body Hamiltonian does not possess this symmetry and, consequently, the dynamics of the attractive and repulsive junctions are different.