Emergence of superfluid transport in a dynamical system of ultracold atoms

The dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate is studied theoretically in a combined periodic plus harmonic external potential. Different dynamical regimes of stable and unstable collective dipole and Bloch oscillations are analysed in terms of a quantum mechanical pendulum model. Nonlinear interactions are shown to counteract quantum-mechanical dephasing and lead to phase-coherent, superfluid transport.