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arXiv:1202.3400 · Physical Review A

Quantum dynamics of solitons in strongly interacting systems on optical lattices

Chester P. Rubbo, Indubala I. Satija, William P. Reinhardt, Radha Balakrishnan, Ana María Rey, Salvatore R. Manmana

Published May 15, 2012• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Mean-field dynamics of strongly interacting bosons described by hard-core bosons with nearest-neighbor attraction has been shown to support two species of solitons: one of Gross-Pitaevskii type (GP type) where the condensate fraction remains dark, and a non-Gross-Pitaevskii type (non-GP type) characterized by brightening of the condensate fraction. Here we study the effects of quantum fluctuations on these solitons using the adaptive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method, which takes into account the effect of strong correlations. We use local observables as the density, condensate density, and correlation functions as well as the entanglement entropy to characterize the stability of the initial states. We find both species of solitons to be stable under quantum evolution for a finite duration, their tolerance to quantum fluctuations being enhanced as the width of the soliton increases. We describe possible experimental realizations in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, polarized degenerate Fermi gases, and in systems of polar molecules on optical lattices.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.053617

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Mean-field dynamics of strongly interacting bosons described by hard-core bosons with nearest-neighbor attraction has been shown to support two species of solitons: one of Gross-Pitaevskii type (GP type) where the condensate fraction remains dark, and a non-Gross-Pitaevskii type (non-GP type) characterized by brightening of the condensate fraction. Here we study the effects of quantum fluctuations on these solitons using the adaptive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method, which takes into account the effect of strong correlations. We use local observables as the density, condensate density, and correlation functions as well as the entanglement entropy to characterize the stability of the initial states. We find both species of solitons to be stable under quantum evolution for a finite duration, their tolerance to quantum fluctuations being enhanced as the width of the soliton increases. We describe possible experimental realizations in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, polarized degenerate Fermi gases, and in systems of polar molecules on optical lattices.
Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in an optical lattice driven out of equilibrium and the subsequent dynamics are investigated in the limit of weak atom-atom interactions both within the classical mean-field approximation and by incorporating an approximate model for quantum fluctuations. A prediction of pulsating dynamical instability in which atoms periodically collect together and subsequently disperse back into the initial homogeneous state is made. This instability is a unique feature of this Hamiltonian system characterized by a single unstable mode and can be considered as a remnant of the integrability of the non-integrable system. A phase-space model has been employed to incorporate the quantum fluctuations within the truncated Wigner approximation. It is observed that the quasiperiodic behavior of the pulsating dynamics persists in the individual stochastic realizations that represent the typical experimental outcomes, but the effect of quantum fluctuations is manifested in the ensemble averages of various properties of the system. Quantum effects are increasingly prominent and the revivals of the ensemble averages of the wave function become progressively weaker when the effective interaction strength is increased. Motivated by these predictions, we apply similar methods to two-component BECs. Within the mean-field model we demonstrate a spontaneous emergence of a vector soliton like structure, a bound pair of a soliton and an anti-soliton, from the homogeneous imbalanced mixture of two BEC species. This is a feature that uniquely combines phase separation, pulsating instability, and formation of a dark-bright soliton pair when the parameters involved are tuned properly. ^
Summary form only given. Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of weakly interacting gases allow for the new regime of nonlinear atom optics. Of special interest are macroscopically excited states like dark solitons or vortices. Solitons, as particle like excitations of matter wave fields, provide a link from condensate physics to fluid mechanics, nonlinear optics and fundamental particle physics. Dark solitons in matter waves are characterized by a local density minimum and, a steep phase gradient of the wavefunction at the position of the minimum. We report on experimental and theoretical investigation of dark solitons in BECs of /sup 87/Rb which are produced by the method of phase imprinting. A highly anisotropic confining potential allows us to be close to the (quasi) 1D situation where dark solitons are expected to be dynamically stable. By monitoring the evolution of the density profile we observe the evolution of density minima travelling at a smaller velocity than the speed of sound. By comparison to analytical and numerical solutions of the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation for our experimental conditions we identify these density minima to be moving dark solitons. We have studied in detail the creation and the dynamics of dark solitons as a function of evolution time and imprinted phase.
We study the quantum tunneling dynamics of many-body entangled solitons composed of ultracold bosonic gases in 1D optical lattices. A bright soliton, confined by a potential barrier, is allowed to tunnel out of confinement by reducing the barrier width and for varying strengths of attractive interactions. Simulation of the Bose Hubbard Hamiltonian is performed with time-evolving block decimation. We find the characteristic 1/e1/e1/e time for the escape of the soliton, substantially different from the mean field prediction, and address how many-body effects like quantum fluctuations, entanglement, and nonlocal correlations affect macroscopic quantum tunneling; number fluctuations and second order correlations are suggested as experimental signatures. We find that while the escape time scales exponentially in the interactions, the time at which both the von Neumann entanglement entropy and the slope of number fluctuations is maximized scale only linearly.
We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with non-local inter-particle interactions. The local Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation is valid for the gas parameter [Formula: see text], but for [Formula: see text], the BEC is described by a modified GP equation (MGPE). We study the exact solutions of the MGPE describing bright and dark solitons. It turns out that the width of these non-local solitons has qualitatively similar behaviour as the modified healing length due to the non-local interactions of the MGPE. We also study the effect of the non-locality and gas parameter (ν) on the stability of the solitons using the Vakhitov-Kolokolov (VK) stability criterion. We show that these soliton solutions are stable according to the VK criterion. Further, the stability of these soliton solutions gets enhanced due to the non-locality of interactions.
The fluctuating and dissipative dynamics of matter-wave dark solitons within harmonically trapped, partially condensed Bose gases is studied both numerically and analytically. A study of the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which correctly accounts for density and phase fluctuations at finite temperatures, reveals dark-soliton decay times to be lognormally distributed at each temperature, thereby characterizing the previously predicted long-lived soliton trajectories within each ensemble of numerical realizations [S. P. Cockburn et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 174101 (2010)]. Expectation values for the average soliton lifetimes extracted from these distributions are found to agree well with both numerical and analytic predictions based upon the dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii model (with the same ab initio damping). Probing the regime for which 0.8 ${k}_{B}T<\ensuremath{\mu}<1.6$ kBT{k}_{B}TkB​T, we find average soliton lifetimes to scale with temperature as $\ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\sim}{T}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$, in agreement with predictions previously made for the low-temperature regime ${k}_{B}T\ensuremath{\ll}\ensuremath{\mu}$. The model is also shown to capture the experimentally relevant decrease in the visibility of an oscillating soliton due to the presence of background fluctuations.
We study the stability, form, and interaction of single and multiple dark solitons in quasi-one-dimensional dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates. The solitons are found numerically as stationary solutions in the moving frame of a nonlocal Gross Pitaevskii equation and characterized as a function of the key experimental parameters, namely the ratio of the dipolar atomic interactions to the van der Waals interactions, the polarization angle, and the condensate width. The solutions and their integrals of motion are strongly affected by the phonon and roton instabilities of the system. Dipolar matter-wave dark solitons propagate without dispersion and collide elastically away from these instabilities, with the dipolar interactions contributing an additional repulsion or attraction to the soliton-soliton interaction. However, close to the instabilities, the collisions are weakly dissipative.