title: Low-acceleration instability of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice.
abstract: We study a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional accelerated optical lattice using the mean-field version of the Bose-Hubbard model. Reminiscent of recent experiments [M. Cristiani et al., Opt. Express 12, 4 (2004)], we find a new type of an instability in this system that occurs in the limit when the acceleration is small.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3046, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Marijan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kostrun
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Javanainen