Thermalization of strongly interacting bosons after spontaneous emissions in optical lattices
Open access
Date
2015Type
- Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of bosonic atoms in a 1D optical lattice, after the ground-state is excited by a single spontaneous emission event, i.e. after an absorption and re-emission of a lattice photon. This is an important fundamental source of decoherence for current experiments, and understanding the resulting dynamics and changes in the many-body state is important for controlling heating in quantum simulators. Previously it was found that in the superfluid regime, simple observables relax to values that can be described by a thermal distribution on experimental time-scales, and that this breaks down for strong interactions (in the Mott insulator regime). Here we expand on this result, investigating the relaxation of the momentum distribution as a function of time, and discussing the relationship to eigenstate thermalization. For the strongly interacting limit, we provide an analytical analysis for the behavior of the system, based on an effective low-energy Hamiltonian in which the dynamics can be understood based on correlated doublon-holon pairs. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000333028Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
EPJ Quantum TechnologyVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
EDP SciencesSubject
thermalization; optical lattices; spontaneous emissions; Bose-Hubbard modelOrganisational unit
02511 - Institut für Theoretische Physik / Institute for Theoretical Physics
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ETH Bibliography
yes
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