| In the usual treatment of Landau-Zener tunneling the physical quantity of interest is the tunneling probability, evaluated from the level populations far away from the avoided crossing. It is, however, legitimate to ask what happens to the system as it passes the crossing. To answer this question one has to calculate the full dynamics of the quantum system or, in an experiment, measure it. In my talk I will explain how Landau-Zener tunneling can be measured in a time-resolved manner using Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices and what the limitations of such measurements are. I will also discuss the relevance of our measurements for the determination of the jump time (or tunneling time) in Landau-Zener tunneling. |
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