Identification and optimal control strategies for the transversal splitting of ultra--cold Bose gases
Splitting a Bose--Einstein condensate (BEC) is a key operation in fundamental physics experiments and emerging quantum technologies, where precise preparation of well--defined initial states requires fast yet coherent control of the condensate's nonlinear dynamics. This work formulates the BEC splitting process as an optimal feedforward control problem based on a physically interpretable, reduced--order model identified from limited experimental data. We introduce a systematic calibration strategy that combines optimal experiment selection and constrained nonlinear parameter estimation, enabling accurate system identification with minimal experimental overhead. Using this calibrated model, we compute energy--optimal trajectories via indirect optimal control to realize shortcuts to adiabaticity (STAs), achieving rapid transitions to the ground state of a double--well potential while suppressing excitations. Experiments confirm that the proposed control framework yields high--fidelity state transfers across multiple configurations, demonstrating its robustness and scalability for quantum control applications.