We apply the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian to a three-well system and show analytically that coherent transport via adiabatic passage (CTAP) of $N$ noninteracting particles across the chain is possible. We investigate the effect of detuning the middle well to recover CTAP when onsite interparticle interactions would otherwise disrupt the transport. The case of small interactions is restated using first-order perturbation theory to develop criteria for adiabaticity that define the regime where CTAP is possible. Within this regime we investigate restricting the Hilbert space to the minimum necessary basis needed to demonstrate CTAP, which dramatically increases the number of particles that can be efficiently considered. Finally, we compare the results of the Bose-Hubbard model to a mean-field three-mode Gross-Pitaevskii analysis for the equivalent system.

• Received 30 January 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.053609