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arXiv:1303.6916 · Physical Review A

Quantum shock waves and population inversion in collisions of ultracold atomic clouds

Sebastiano Peotta, Massimiliano Di Ventra

Published Jan 24, 2014• 39 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Using a time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (TDMRG) approach we study the collision of one-dimensional atomic clouds confined in a harmonic trap and evolving with the Lieb-Liniger Hamiltonian. It is observed that the motion is essentially periodic with the clouds bouncing elastically, at least on the time scale of the first few oscillations that can be resolved with high accuracy. This is in agreement with the results of the ``quantum Newton cradle'' experiment of Kinoshita et al. [Nature (London) 440, 900 (2006)]. We compare the results for the density profile against a hydrodynamic description, or generalized nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, with the pressure term taken from the Bethe ansatz solution of the Lieb-Liniger model. We find that hydrodynamics can describe the breathing mode of a harmonically trapped cloud for arbitrary long times while it breaks down almost immediately for the collision of two clouds due to the formation of shock waves (gradient catastrophe). In the case of the clouds' collision TDMRG alone allows one to extract the oscillation period which is found to be measurably different from the breathing mode period. Concomitantly with the shock waves formation we observe a local energy distribution typical of population inversion, i.e., an effective negative temperature. Our results are an important step towards understanding the hydrodynamics of quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium and the role of integrability in their dynamics.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.89.013621

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•Jan 8, 2015•0 citations
Using a time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (TDMRG) approach we study the collision of one-dimensional atomic clouds confined in a harmonic trap and evolving with the Lieb-Liniger Hamiltonian. It is observed that the motion is essentially periodic with the clouds bouncing elastically, at least on the time scale of the first few oscillations that can be resolved with high accuracy. This is in agreement with the results of the ``quantum Newton cradle'' experiment of Kinoshita et al. [Nature (London) 440, 900 (2006)]. We compare the results for the density profile against a hydrodynamic description, or generalized nonlinear Schr"odinger equation, with the pressure term taken from the Bethe ansatz solution of the Lieb-Liniger model. We find that hydrodynamics can describe the breathing mode of a harmonically trapped cloud for arbitrary long times while it breaks down almost immediately for the collision of two clouds due to the formation of shock waves (gradient catastrophe). In the case of the clouds' collision TDMRG alone allows one to extract the oscillation period which is found to be measurably different from the breathing mode period. Concomitantly with the shock waves formation we observe a local energy distribution typical of population inversion, i.e., an effective negative temperature. Our results are an important step towards understanding the hydrodynamics of quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium and the role of integrability in their dynamics.
Describing and understanding the motion of quantum gases out of equilibrium is one of the most important modern challenges for theorists. In the groundbreaking Quantum Newton Cradle experiment [Kinoshita, Wenger and Weiss, Nature 440, 900 (2006)], quasi-one-dimensional cold atom gases were observed with unprecedented accuracy, providing impetus for many developments on the effects of low dimensionality in out-of-equilibrium physics. But it is only recently that the theory of generalized hydrodynamics has provided the adequate tools for a numerically efficient description. Using it, we give a complete numerical study of the time evolution of an ultracold atomic gas in this setup, in an interacting parameter regime close to that of the original experiment. We evaluate the full evolving phase-space distribution of particles. We simulate oscillations due to the harmonic trap, the collision of clouds without thermalization, and observe a small elongation of the actual oscillation period and cloud deformations due to many-body dephasing. We also analyze the effects of weak anharmonicity. In the experiment, measurements are made after release from the one-dimensional trap. We evaluate the gas density curves after such a release, characterizing the actual time necessary for reaching the asymptotic state where the integrable quasi-particle momentum distribution function emerges.
We study collisions between two strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas clouds. We observe exotic nonlinear hydrodynamic behavior, distinguished by the formation of a very sharp and stable density peak as the clouds collide and subsequent evolution into a boxlike shape. We model the nonlinear dynamics of these collisions by using quasi-1D hydrodynamic equations. Our simulations of the time-dependent density profiles agree very well with the data and provide clear evidence of shock wave formation in this universal quantum hydrodynamic system.
The conventional theory of hydrodynamics describes the evolution in time of chaotic many-particle systems from local to global equilibrium. In a quantum integrable system, local equilibrium is characterized by a local generalized Gibbs ensemble or equivalently a local distribution of pseudomomenta. We study time evolution from local equilibria in such models by solving a certain kinetic equation, the "Bethe-Boltzmann" equation satisfied by the local pseudomomentum density. Explicit comparison with density matrix renormalization group time evolution of a thermal expansion in the XXZ model shows that hydrodynamical predictions from smooth initial conditions can be remarkably accurate, even for small system sizes. Solutions are also obtained in the Lieb-Liniger model for free expansion into vacuum and collisions between clouds of particles, which model experiments on ultracold one-dimensional Bose gases.
In an effort to address integrability breaking in cold gas experiments, we extend the integrable hydrodynamics of the Lieb-Liniger model with two additional components representing the population of atoms in the first and second transverse excited states, thus enabling a description of quasi-1D condensates. Collisions between different components are accounted for through the inclusion of a Boltzmann-type collision integral in the hydrodynamic equation. Contrary to standard generalized hydrodynamics, our extended model captures thermalization of the condensate at a rate consistent with experimental observations from a quantum Newton's cradle setup.
The recently proposed map [5] between the hydrodynamic equations governing the two-dimensional triangular cold-bosonic breathers [1] and the high-density zero-temperature triangular free-fermionic clouds, both trapped harmonically, perfectly explains the former phenomenon but leaves uninterpreted the nature of the initial (t=0) singularity. This singularity is a density discontinuity that leads, in the bosonic case, to an infinite force at the cloud edge. The map itself becomes invalid at times t<0 t < 0 . A similar singularity appears at t = T/4 t = T / 4 , where T is the period of the harmonic trap, with the Fermi-Bose map becoming invalid at t > T/4 t > T / 4 . Here, we first map—using the scale invariance of the problem—the trapped motion to an untrapped one. Then we show that in the new representation, the solution [5] becomes, along a ray in the direction normal to one of the three edges of the initial cloud, a freely propagating one-dimensional shock wave of a class proposed by Damski in [7]. There, for a broad class of initial conditions, the one-dimensional hydrodynamic equations can be mapped to the inviscid Burgers’ equation, which is equivalent to a nonlinear transport equation. More specifically, under the Damski map, the t=0 singularity of the original problem becomes, verbatim, the initial condition for the wave catastrophe solution found by Chandrasekhar in 1943 [9]. At t=T/8 t = T / 8 , our interpretation ceases to exist: at this instance, all three effectively one-dimensional shock waves emanating from each of the three sides of the initial triangle collide at the origin, and the 2D-1D correspondence between the solution of [5] and the Damski-Chandrasekhar shock wave becomes invalid.
We analyze free expansion of a trapped one-dimensional Bose gas after a sudden release from the confining trap potential. By using the stationary phase and local density approximations, we show that the long-time asymptotic density profile and the momentum distribution of the gas are determined by the initial distribution of Bethe rapidities (quasimomenta) and hence can be obtained from the solutions to the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations. For expansion from a harmonic trap, and in the limits of very weak and very strong interactions, we recover the known scaling solutions of the hydrodynamic approach corresponding to self-similar expansion. For all other power-law traps and arbitrary interaction strengths, the expansion is not self-similar and shows strong dependence on the trap anharmonicity of the shape variation of the density profile during evolution. We also characterize dynamical fermionization of an expanding cloud in terms of its first- and second-order coherences describing phase and density fluctuations.