Observation of Zitterbewegung in a spin-orbit coupled atomic gas

We show that the dynamics of an interacting atomic gas with light-induced gauge potential can be effectively described by a one-dimensional nonlinear spinor Dirac-type equation. Then, it is possible to observe atomic Zitterbewegung (ZB) with interatomic interaction. Here, the effect of two different kinds of nonlinear interaction, repulsive and attractive, on the ZB, is investigated numerically. Therefore, our proposal provides a more realistic situation in simulating the atomic ZB.