Driven Bose-Hubbard Model with a Parametrically Modulated Harmonic Trap

We investigate a one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model in a parametrically driven global harmonic trap. The delicate interplay of both the local atom interaction and the global driving allows to control the dynamical stability of the trapped quantum many-body state. The mechanism is illustrated for weak interaction by a discretized Gross-Pitaevskii equation within a Gaussian variational ansatz, yielding to a Mathieu equation for the condensate width. The parametric resonance condition can be tuned by the atom interaction strength. For stronger interaction, this mechanism is confirmed by results of the numerically exact time-evolving block decimation scheme. The global modulation also induces an effective time-independent inhomogeneous hopping strength for the atoms.