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arXiv:1407.5642 · Physical Review A

Quantum kinetics of ultracold fermions coupled to an optical resonator

Francesco Piazza, Philipp Strack

Published Oct 15, 2014• 55 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the far-from-equilibrium statistical mechanics of periodically driven fermionic atoms in a lossy optical resonator. We show that the interplay of the Fermi surface with cavity losses leads to subnatural cavity linewidth narrowing, squeezed light, and nonthermal quantum statistics of the atoms. Adapting the Keldysh approach, we set up and solve a quantum kinetic Boltzmann equation in a systematic $1/N$ expansion with $N$ the number of atoms. In the strict thermodynamic limit $N,V\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty},N/V=\text{const.}$ we find that the atoms (fermions or bosons) remain immune against cavity-induced heating or cooling. At next-to-leading order in $1/N$, we find a ``one-way thermalization'' of the atoms determined by cavity decay. In absence of an equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relation, the long-time limit $\ensuremath{\Delta}t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ does not commute with the thermodynamic limit $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, such that for the physically relevant case of large but finite $N$, the dynamics ultimately becomes strongly coupled, especially close to the superradiance phase transition.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.90.043823

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We study the far-from-equilibrium statistical mechanics of periodically driven fermionic atoms in a lossy optical resonator. We show that the interplay of the Fermi surface with cavity losses leads to subnatural cavity linewidth narrowing, squeezed light, and nonthermal quantum statistics of the atoms. Adapting the Keldysh approach, we set up and solve a quantum kinetic Boltzmann equation in a systematic 1/N1/N1/N expansion with NNN the number of atoms. In the strict thermodynamic limit N,V\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞,N/V=const.N,V\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty},N/V=\text{const.}N,V\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞,N/V=const. we find that the atoms (fermions or bosons) remain immune against cavity-induced heating or cooling. At next-to-leading order in 1/N1/N1/N, we find a ``one-way thermalization'' of the atoms determined by cavity decay. In absence of an equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relation, the long-time limit \ensuremathΔt\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞\ensuremath{\Delta}t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}\ensuremathΔt\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞ does not commute with the thermodynamic limit N\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}N\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞, such that for the physically relevant case of large but finite NNN, the dynamics ultimately becomes strongly coupled, especially close to the superradiance phase transition.
We study a Fermi-Hubbard model coupled to a open dissipative single cavity mode. Using Keldysh diagrammatics we derive and solve the quantum kinetic equations for the fermions, taking the bosonic cavity mode as a source of non-equilibrium noise and dissipation. In absence of Hubbard interactions we show that the fermions reach generically a non-equilibrium steady-state, characterized by a non-thermal distribution function. Quite interestingly we demonstrate that the latter exactly nullifies the heat-current between fermions and cavity mode. We discuss the regimes of parameters where a low-frequency effective temperature description emerges and how the fluctuations affect the mean-field phase diagram for the superradiance phase transition. Finally we include Hubbard interaction in the weak-coupling regime and show that it leads to a crossover towards a full equilibrium distribution.
The quantum dynamics of the electromagnetic light mode of an optical cavity filled with a coherently driven Fermi gas of ultracold atoms strongly depends on the geometry of the Fermi surface. Superradiant light generation and self-organization of the atoms can be achieved at low pumping threshold due to resonant atom-photon umklapp processes, where the fermions are scattered from one side of the Fermi surface to the other by exchanging photon momenta. The cavity spectrum exhibits sidebands that, despite strong atom-light coupling and cavity decay, retain narrow linewidth, due to absorptionless transparency windows outside the atomic particle-hole continuum and the suppression of broadening and thermal fluctuations in the collisionless Fermi gas.
We study the role of quantum statistics in the self-ordering of ultracold bosons and fermions moving inside an optical resonator with transverse coherent pumping. For few particles we numerically compute the nonequilibrium dynamics of the density matrix towards the self-ordered stationary state of the coupled atom-cavity system. We include quantum fluctuations of the particles and the cavity field. These fluctuations in conjunction with cavity cooling determine the stationary distribution of the particles, which exhibits a transition from a homogeneous to a spatially ordered phase with the appearance of a superradiant scattering peak in the cavity output spectrum. While the ordering threshold is generally lower for bosons, we confirm the recently predicted zero pump strength threshold for superradiant scattering for fermions when the cavity photon momentum coincides with twice the Fermi momentum.
We investigate nonequilibrium phase transitions for driven atomic ensembles interacting with a cavity mode and coupled to a Markovian dissipative bath. In the thermodynamic limit and at low frequencies, we show that the distribution function of the photonic mode is thermal, with an effective temperature set by the atom-photon interaction strength. This behavior characterizes the static and dynamic critical exponents of the associated superradiance transition. Motivated by these considerations, we develop a general Keldysh path-integral approach that allows us to study physically relevant nonlinearities beyond the idealized Dicke model. Using standard diagrammatic techniques, we take into account the leading-order corrections due to the finite number NNN of atoms. For finite NNN, the photon mode behaves as a damped classical nonlinear oscillator at finite temperature. For the atoms, we propose a Dicke action that can be solved for any NNN and correctly captures the atoms' depolarization due to dissipative dephasing.
Pattern formation of atoms in high-finesse optical resonators results from the mechanical forces of light associated with superradiant scattering into the cavity mode. It occurs when the laser intensity exceeds a threshold value such that the pumping processes counteract the losses. We consider atoms driven by a laser and coupling with a mode of a standing-wave cavity and describe their dynamics with a Fokker-Planck equation, in which the atomic motion is semiclassical but the cavity field is a full quantum variable. The asymptotic state of the atoms is a thermal state, whose temperature is solely controlled by the detuning between the laser and the cavity frequency and by the cavity loss rate. From this result we derive the free energy and show that in the thermodynamic limit self-organization is a second-order phase transition. The order parameter is the field inside the resonator to which one can associate a magnetization in analogy to ferromagnetism, the control field is the laser intensity, but the steady state is intrinsically out of equilibrium. In the symmetry-broken phase, quantum noise induces jumps of the spatial density between two ordered patterns: We characterize the statistical properties of this temporal behavior at steady state and show that the thermodynamic properties of the system can be extracted by detecting the light at the cavity output. The results of our analysis are in full agreement with previous studies; we extend them by deriving a self-consistent theory which is valid also when the cavity field is in the shot-noise limit and elucidate the nature of the self-organization transition.
Ultracold atomic gases loaded into optical cavities constitute one of the most versatile platforms for the study of out-of-equilibrium dynamics and quantum simulation of many- body systems. In this thesis, we explore these two possibilities, motivated by current state-of-the-art atom-cavity experiments, uncovering novel phenomena and opening up new theoretical and experimental avenues into the intriguing world of quantum many- body physics. First, we study a gas of ultracold atoms coupled to three optical resonators. We show that the inherent Z2 symmetries, associated with each atom-cavity coupling, can be combined into a global SO(3) rotational symmetry which can be spontaneously broken. We determine the phase diagram of the system, which shows the emergence and breaking of the continuous symmetries and displays first- and second-order phase transitions. We argue that by coupling the atoms equally to n different modes, it will in general be possible to generate a global SO(n) symmetry. Second, we investigate the dynamics of a spinor BEC inside an optical cavity. We focus on a two-component Dicke model with complex light-matter couplings, accounting for photon losses. We compute the steady-state phase diagram and find dynamical in- stabilities in the form of limit cycles, heralded by the presence of exceptional points and level attraction. We show that the instabilities are induced by dissipative processes that generate nonreciprocal couplings between the two collective spins. Lastly, we explore the dynamics of a BEC inside an optical cavity in the presence of an optical lattice. We derive an effective master equation by adiabatically eliminating the cavity field. In the bad-cavity regime, we find an infinite-temperature steady state, but with relaxation dynamics that can be highly nontrivial. For small hopping, the interplay between dissipation and strong interactions leads to an algebraic relaxation of the system, whereas for large hopping, the approach to the steady state is exponential. In the good- cavity regime, we show that the system allows for optical pumping between momentum modes, enabling cavity cooling.