arXiv:1001.4615 · Physical Review A

Quantum-tunneling dynamics of a spin-polarized Fermi gas in a double-well potential

Luca Salasnich, G. Mazzarella, Mario Salerno, Flavio Toigo

Published Feb 18, 2010• 12 citations

Abstract

We study the exact dynamics of a one-dimensional spin-polarized gas of fermions in a double-well potential at zero and finite temperature. Despite the system being made of noninteracting fermions, its dynamics can be quite complex, showing strongly aperiodic spatio-temporal patterns during the tunneling. The extension of these results to the case of mixtures of spin-polarized fermions interacting with self-trapped Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) at zero temperature is considered as well. In this case we show that the fermionic dynamics remains qualitatively similar to that observed in the absence of BEC but with the Rabi frequencies of fermionic excited states explicitly depending on the number of bosons and on the boson-fermion interaction strength. From this, the possibility of controlling quantum fermionic dynamics by means of Feshbach resonances is suggested.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.81.023614

Related papers

Interaction-modulated tunneling dynamics of a mixture of Bose-Fermi superfluid

Hong-Ping Xu, Zhen-Zhen He, Zi-Fa Yu +1 more

In this paper, we study the interaction-modulated tunneling dynamics of a Bose-Fermi superfluid mixture, where a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with weak repulsive interaction is confined in a symmetric deep double-well potential and an equally populated two-component Fermi gas in a harmonic potential symmetrically is positioned in the center of the double-well potential. The tunneling between the two wells is modulated by fermions trapped in a harmonic potential. When the temperature is adequately low and the bosonic particle number is adequately large, we can employ the mean-field theory to describe the evolution of the BEC in the double-well potential through the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. For the Fermi gas in the harmonic potential trap, we consider the case where the inter-fermion interaction is tuned on the deep Bose-Einstein condensate of the inter-fermion Feshbach resonance, where two fermions of spin-up and spin-down form a two-body bound state. Within the regime, the Fermi gas is well described by a condensate of these fermionic dimers, and hence can be simulated as well by a Gross-Pitaevskii equation of dimers. The inter-species interactions couple the dynamics of the two species, which results in interesting features in the tunneling oscillations. The dynamic equations of the BEC in the double-well potential is described by a two-mode approximation. Coupling it with time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation of the harmonically potential trapped molecular BEC, we numerically investigate the dynamical evolution of the Boson-Fermi hybrid system under different initial conditions. It is found that the interaction among fermions in a harmonic potential leads to strong non-linearity in the oscillations of the bosons in the double-well potential and enriches the tunneling dynamics of the bosons. Especially, it strengthens macroscopic quantum self-trapping. And the macroscopic quantum self-trapping can be expressed in three forms: the phase tends to be negative and monotonically decreases with time, the phase evolves with time, and the phase tends to be positive and increases monotonically with time. This means that it is possible the tunneling dynamics of the BEC in double-well potential is adjustable. Our results can be verified experimentally in a Bose-Fermi superfluid mixture by varying different interaction parameters via Feshbach resonance and confinement-induced resonance.

Acta Physica SinicaJan 1, 20221 citation

Effects of a single fermion in a Bose Josephson junction

M. Rinck, Christoph Bruder

We consider the tunneling properties of a single fermionic impurity immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. For strong boson-fermion interaction, we show the existence of a tunnel resonance where a large number of bosons and the fermion tunnel simultaneously. We give analytical expressions for the line shape of the resonance using degenerate Brillouin-Wigner theory. We finally compute the time-dependent dynamics of the mixture. Using the fermionic tunnel resonances as a beam splitter for wave functions, we construct a Mach-Zehnder interferometer that allows complete population transfer from one well to the other by tilting the double-well potential and only taking into account the fermion's tunnel properties.

arXiv:1010.5979Physical Review AFeb 14, 201118 citations

Macroscopic quantum self-trapping of an ultracold Bose–Fermi mixture in a double-well potential

Santiago F. Caballero-Benítez, Elena A. Ostrovskaya, M. Gulácsi +1 more

We study the macroscopic quantum self-trapping effect in a mixture of Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) and quantum degenerate fermions, confined in a double-well potential with a variable separation between the wells. The fermions form a finite-size cloud that affects the static and dynamical properties of the BEC. In particular, our quasi-analytical and numerical analysis based on a mean-field model shows that the main features of macroscopic quantum self-trapping in a pure bosonic system are modified by the influence of fermions. Both the onset of self-trapping and the properties of the self-trapped state depend on the amount of fermions in the system as well as on the type of inter-species interaction. The properties of the quantum degenerate mixture are explored using realistic parameters for a 40 K– 87 Rb system.

Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical PhysicsOct 26, 200912 citations

Tunneling Dynamics of Few-Boson Systems in Double-Well Traps

Chatterjee, Budhaditya

In this thesis, the tunneling dynamics of a few boson system in a double-well is investigated from an ab-initio prospective using the numerically exact Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree method. We first study a system consisting of single species of bosons with a spatially modulated interaction. The main emphasis is on the role of inhomogeneity and its effect on the tunneling. The dynamics changes from Rabi oscillations in the non-interacting case to a highly suppressed tunneling for intermediate interaction strengths followed by a reappearance of tunneling near the fermionization limit. With extreme interaction inhomogeneity in the regime of strong correlations we observe tunneling between the higher bands. A richer behavior is found for systems with higher particle number. For systems with more than two bosons, the inhomogeneity of the interaction can be tuned to generate tunneling resonances. These observations are explained on the basis of the few-body spectrum and stationary eigenstates. A tilted double-well and its interplay with the interaction asymmetry is discussed next. We demonstrate that the effects of the interaction can be compensated by the tilt leading to tunneling resonances. We then explore tunneling dynamics of binary bosonic mixtures. The focus is on the role of the inter- and intra-species interactions and their interplay. The dynamics is studied for three initial configurations: complete and partial population imbalance and a phase separated state. Increasing the inter-species interaction leads to a strong increase of the tunneling time period analogous to the quantum self-trapping for condensates. The intra-species repulsion can suppress or enhance the tunneling period depending on the strength of the inter-species correlations as well as the initial configuration. Completely correlated tunneling between the two species and within the same species as well as mechanisms of species separation and counterflow are revealed. These effects are explained by studying the many-body energy spectra as well as the properties of the contributing stationary states.

Jan 1, 20120 citations

Bose-Fermi mixtures in the condensed phase

Andrea Guidini, P. Pieri

We consider a Bose-Fermi mixture with a broad and tunable Feshbach resonance allowing to change continuously the attraction between bosons and fermions from weak to strong coupling. We set up a diagrammatic formalism which includes both the Bose-Fermi tunable attraction and the Bose-Bose repulsion at zero temperature. Remarkably, we find that for boson density smaller than or equal to the fermion density, the boson condensate fraction does not depend on the density imbalance across most of the resonance. In the limit of vanishing boson concentration, we find very good agreement with previous results for the polaron quasi-particle residue obtained in the context of strongly polarized Fermi-Fermi mixtures [1]. We calculate also the boson and fermion chemical potentials and momentum distribution functions and, when the condensate fraction vanishes, we recover the results of our previous works for the normal phase [2,3]. In addition, we calculate the effective masses and Fermi steps for the unpaired and composite fermions. We find that the Fermi step of the unpaired fermions remains pinned to the value given by the Fermi radius of a free Fermi gas across most of the resonance, in agreement with the Luttinger’s theorem [4], until molecules start to form (g≈1). The formation of molecules is signalled by the appearance of a second pole in the boson-fermion propagator, which marks the access to a regime where bosons, fermions and molecules cohexist, and by the presence of a Fermi step for the composite fermions, which is related to the density of molecules. Finally, we find quite a good agreement between our results for the condensate fraction and Quantum Monte Carlo calculations [5].

Jan 1, 20140 citations

One-dimensional Few-boson Systems in Single- and Double-well Traps

Sascha Zöllner

This thesis studies the one-dimensional Bose gas in harmonic and double-well traps from a few-body perspective. The main emphasis is on the crossover from weak interactions to the fermionization limit of infinite repulsion, where the system maps to an ideal Fermi gas. To explore the structure as well as the quantum dynamics throughout that crossover, we both develop an exact-diagonalization approach and resort to a multi-configurational time-dependent method (MCTDH). The basic mechanism of the fermionization crossover for the ground state is shown to consist in the formation of a correlation hole in the two-body density, which culminates in a localization of the individual particles for strong repulsion. This is accompanied by a reduction of coherence. We demonstrate how the concrete pathway depends on the trap geometry, on the shape of the interaction, as well as on the atom number. By extension, we also investigate the lowest excitations, whose understanding is a base for studying the impact of the fermionization crossover on the tunneling dynamics in a double well. In symmetric wells, a pathway from single-particle to fragmented-pair tunneling shows up. By energetically offsetting the two wells, tunnel resonances become accessible, which may be used to extract single atoms.

Jan 1, 20080 citations