  We extend the concept of quantum speed limit -- the minimal time needed to
perform a driven evolution -- to complex interacting many-body systems. We
investigate a prototypical many-body system, a bosonic Josephson junction, at
increasing levels of complexity: (a) within the two-mode approximation
{corresponding to} a nonlinear two-level system, (b) at the mean-field level by
solving the nonlinear Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a double well potential, and
(c) at an exact many-body level by solving the time-dependent many-body
Schr\"odinger equation. We propose a control protocol to transfer atoms from
the ground state of a well to the ground state of the neighbouring well.
Furthermore, we show that the detrimental effects of the inter-particle
repulsion can be eliminated by means of a compensating control pulse, yielding,
quite surprisingly, an enhancement of the transfer speed because of the
particle interaction -- in contrast to the self-trapping scenario. Finally, we
perform numerical optimisations of both the nonlinear and the (exact) many-body
quantum dynamics in order to further enhance the transfer efficiency close to
the quantum speed limit.

Quantum Physics