Nonlinear tunneling of BEC in an optical lattice: signatures of quantum collapse and revival

Quantum theory of the intraband resonant tunneling of a Bose-Einstein condensate loaded in a twodimensional optical lattice is considered. It is shown that the phenomena of quantum collapse and revival can be observed in the fully quantum problem. The mean-field limit of the theory is analyzed using the WKB approximation for discrete equations, establishing in this way a direct connection between the two approaches conventionally used in very different physical contexts. More specifically we show that there exist two different regimes of tunneling and study dependence of quantum collapse and revival on the number of condensed atoms.