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arXiv:0912.3667 · Physical Review Letters

Comment on “Coherent Ratchets in Driven Bose-Einstein Condensates”

Giuliano Benenti, Giulio Casati, S. Denisov, Sergej Flach A, Peter Hänggi A, Baowen Li, Dario Poletti

Published Jun 3, 2010• 8 citations
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Abstract

C. E. Creffield and F. Sols (Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 200601 (2009)) recently reported finite, directed time-averaged ratchet current, for a noninteracting quantum particle in a periodic potential even when time-reversal symmetry holds. As we explain in this Comment, this result is incorrect, that is, time-reversal symmetry implies a vanishing current.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.104.228901

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Creffield and Sols Reply:

C. E. Creffield, Fernando Sols

Benenti et al. recently submitted a Comment (arXiv:0912.3667) on our work "Coherent Ratchets in Driven Bose-Einstein condensates". We show that the main claim of the Comment is wrong, and correct some other misunderstandings presented there.

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C. E. Creffield and F. Sols (Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 200601 (2009)) recently reported finite, directed time-averaged ratchet current, for a noninteracting quantum particle in a periodic potential even when time-reversal symmetry holds. As we explain in this Comment, this result is incorrect, that is, time-reversal symmetry implies a vanishing current.
We study the response of a Bose-Einstein condensate to an unbiased periodic driving potential. By controlling the space and time symmetries of the driving we show how a directed current can be induced, producing a coherent quantum ratchet. Weak driving induces a regular behavior, and space and time symmetries must both be broken to produce a current. For strong driving, the behavior becomes chaotic and the resulting effective irreversibility means that it is unnecessary to explicitly break time symmetry. Spatial asymmetry alone is then sufficient to produce the ratchet effect, even in the absence of interactions, and although the system remains completely coherent.
We experimentally investigate the phenomenon of a quantum ratchet created by exposing a Bose-Einstein condensate to short pulses of a potential which is periodic in both space and time. Such a ratchet is manifested by a directed current of particles, even though there is an absence of a net bias force. We confirm a recent theoretical prediction [M. Sadgrove and S. Wimberger, New J. Phys. 11, 083027 (2009)] that the current direction can be controlled by experimental parameters which leave the underlying symmetries of the system unchanged. We demonstrate that this behavior can be understood using a single variable containing many of the experimental parameters and thus the ratchet current is describable using a single universal scaling law.
Classical ratchet potentials, which alternate a driving potential with periodic random dissipative motion, can account for the operation of biological motors. We demonstrate the operation of a quantum ratchet, which differs from classical ratchets in that dissipative processes are absent within the observation time of the system (Hamiltonian regime). An atomic rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate is exposed to a sawtooth-like optical lattice potential, whose amplitude is periodically modulated in time. The ratchet transport arises from broken spatiotemporal symmetries of the driven potential, resulting in a desymmetrization of transporting eigenstates (Floquet states). The full quantum character of the ratchet transport was demonstrated by the measured atomic current oscillating around a nonzero stationary value at longer observation times, resonances occurring at positions determined by the photon recoil, and dependence of the transport current on the initial phase of the driving potential.
We study the crossover between classical and quantum dynamics by observing the behavior of a quantum ratchet created by exposing a Bose-Einstein condensate to short pulses of a potential which is periodic in both space and time. Such a ratchet is manifested by a directed current of particles, even though there is an absence of a net bias force. We confirm that the ratchet behavior can under certain circumstances be the same in both regimes. We demonstrate that this behavior can be understood using a single variable containing many of the experimental parameters and thus the ratchet current is describable using a single universal scaling law.
We study the rectification process of interacting quantum particles in a periodic potential exposed to the action of an external ac driving. The breaking of spatio-temporal symmetries leads to directed motion even in the absence of interactions. A hallmark of quantum ratcheting is the appearance of resonant enhancement of the current (Denisov et al 2007 Europhys. Lett. 79 10007; Denisov et al 2007 Phys. Rev. A 75 063424). Here, we study the fate of these resonances within a Gross–Pitaevskii equation which describes a mean field interaction between many particles. We find that the resonance (i) is not destroyed by interactions, (ii) shifts its location with increasing interaction strength. We trace the Floquet states of the linear equations into the nonlinear domain, and show that the resonance gives rise to an instability and thus to the appearance of new nonlinear Floquet states, whose transport properties differ strongly as compared to the case of noninteracting particles.