Towards coherent control of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a double well

A type of solution to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation for periodically driven Bose-Einstein condensates is introduced, which generalizes the familiar single-particle Floquet states. These solutions lead to the prediction that the onset of self-trapping of a condensate in a periodically modulated double well can be systematically controlled. This mean-field prediction is confirmed on the N-particle level, and explained by a pairing mechanism.