Creating and transporting Trojan wave packets*

The non-dispersive localized atomic states that have been most widely studied theoretically are termed Trojan wave packets because the mechanism responsible for suppressing dispersion (which is of classical origin) parallels that for stabilization of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids located near the L$_{4}$ and L$_{5}$ Lagrange points. In the present work non-dispersive localized Trojan wave packets with $n\sim $ 305 moving in near-circular orbits are created in the laboratory, and transported to localized near-circular Trojan states of higher $n$, $n\sim $ 600, by driving with a linearly-polarized sinusoidal electric field whose period is slowly increased. The protocol is remarkably efficient with over 80{\%} of the initial atoms being transferred to the higher $n$ states. The mechanisms involved in localization and transport are discussed with the aid of classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations.