Dynamics of a period-3 pattern-loaded Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

We discuss the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate initially loaded into every third site of an optical lattice using a description based upon the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation. An analytic solution is developed for the case of a periodic initial condition and is compared with numerical simulations for more general initial configurations. We show that mean field effects in this system can cause macroscopic quantum self-trapping, a phenomenon already predicted for double-well systems. In the presence of a uniform external potential, the atoms exhibit generalized Bloch oscillations which can be interpreted in terms of the interference of three different Bloch states. We also discuss how the momentum distribution of the system can be used as an experimental signature of the macroscopic self-trapping effect.