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arXiv:1409.0560 · Physical Review A

Damping of Bloch oscillations: Variational solutions of the Boltzmann equation beyond linear response

Stephan Mandt

Published Nov 19, 2014• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Variational solutions of the Boltzmann equation usually rely on the concept of linear response. We extend the variational approach for tight-binding models at high entropies to a regime far beyond linear response. We analyze both weakly interacting fermions and incoherent bosons on a lattice. We consider a case where the particles are driven by a constant force, leading to the well-known Bloch oscillations, and we consider interactions that are weak enough not to overdamp these oscillations. This regime is computationally demanding and relevant for ultracold atoms in optical lattices. We derive a simple theory in terms of coupled dynamic equations for the particle density, energy density, current, and heat current, allowing for analytic solutions. As an application, we identify damping coefficients for Bloch oscillations in the Hubbard model at weak interactions and compute them for a one-dimensional toy model. We also approximately solve the long-time dynamics of a weakly interacting, strongly Bloch-oscillating cloud of fermionic particles in a tilted lattice, leading to a subdiffusive scaling exponent.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.90.053624

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Variational solutions of the Boltzmann equation usually rely on the concept of linear response. We extend the variational approach for tight-binding models at high entropies to a regime far beyond linear response. We analyze both weakly interacting fermions and incoherent bosons on a lattice. We consider a case where the particles are driven by a constant force, leading to the well-known Bloch oscillations, and we consider interactions that are weak enough not to overdamp these oscillations. This regime is computationally demanding and relevant for ultracold atoms in optical lattices. We derive a simple theory in terms of coupled dynamic equations for the particle density, energy density, current, and heat current, allowing for analytic solutions. As an application, we identify damping coefficients for Bloch oscillations in the Hubbard model at weak interactions and compute them for a one-dimensional toy model. We also approximately solve the long-time dynamics of a weakly interacting, strongly Bloch-oscillating cloud of fermionic particles in a tilted lattice, leading to a subdiffusive scaling exponent.
Transport properties and nonequilibrium dynamics in strongly correlated materials are \ntypically difficult to calculate. This holds true even for minimalistic model Hamiltonians \nof these systems, such as the fermionic Hubbard model. \nUltracold atoms in optical lattices enable an alternative realization of the Hubbard \nmodel and have the advantage of being free of additional complications such as phonons, \nlattice defects or impurities. This way, cold atoms can be used as quantum simulators of \nstrongly interacting materials. Being thermally isolated systems, however, we show that \ncold atoms in optical lattices can also behave very differently from solids and can show a \nplethora of novel dynamic effects. \nIn this thesis, several out-of equilibrium processes involving interacting fermionic atoms \nin optical lattices are presented. We first analyze the expansion dynamics of an initially \nconfined atomic cloud in the lowest band of an optical lattice. While non-interacting atoms \nexpand ballistically, the cloud expands with a dramatically reduced velocity in the presence \nof interactions. Most prominently, the expansion velocity is independent of the attractive \nor repulsive character of the interactions, highlighting a novel dynamic symmetry of the \nHubbard model. \nIn a second project, we discuss the possibility of realizing negative absolute temperatures in optical lattices. Negative absolute temperatures characterize equilibrium states \nwith an inverted occupation of energy levels. Here, we propose a dynamical process to realize equilibrated Fermions at negative temperatures and analyze the time scales of global \nrelaxation to equilibrium, which are associated with a redistribution of energy and particles \nby slow diffusive processes. \nWe show that energy conservation has a major impact on the dynamics of an interacting \ncloud in an optical lattice, which is exposed to an additional weak linear (gravitational) \npotential. Instead of ‘falling downwards‘, the cloud diffuses symmetrically upwards and \ndownwards in the gravitational potential. Furthermore, we show analytically that the \nradius R grows with the time t according to R ∼ t^1/3, consistent with numerical simulations \nof the Boltzmann equation. \nFinally, we analyze the damping of Bloch oscillations by interactions. For a homogeneous system, we discuss the possibility of mapping the dynamics of the particle current to \na classical damped harmonic oscillator equation, thereby giving an analytic explanation for \nthe transition from weakly damped to over-damped Bloch oscillations. We show that the \ndynamics of a strongly Bloch oscillating and weakly interacting atomic cloud can be discribed in terms of a novel effective “stroboscopic” diffusion equation. In this approximation, \nthe cloud’s radius R grows asymptotically in time t according to R ∼ t^1/5 .
Atomic interaction leads to dephasing and damping of Bloch oscillations (BOs) in optical lattices, which limits observation and applications of BOs. How to obtain persistent BOs is particularly important. Here, the nonlinear Bloch dynamics of the Bose–Einstein condensate with two-body and three-body interactions in deep optical lattices is studied. The damping rate induced by interactions is obtained. The damping induced by two-body interaction plays a dominant role, while the damping induced by three-body interaction is weak. However, when the two-body and three-body interactions satisfy a threshold, long-lived coherent BOs are observed. Furthermore, the Bloch dynamics with periodical modulation of linear force is studied. The frequencies of linear force corresponding to resonance and pseudoresonance are obtained, and rich dynamical phenomena, i.e., stable and strong BOs, drifting and dispersion of wave packet, are predicted. The controllable Bloch dynamics is provided with the periodic modulation of the linear force.
We analyze the dynamics of an initially trapped cloud of interacting quantum particles on a lattice under a linear (Stark) potential. We reveal a dichotomy: initially trapped interacting systems possess features typical of both many-body-localized and thermalizing systems. We consider both fermions (t-V model) and bosons (Bose-Hubbard model). For the zero and infinite interaction limits, both systems are integrable: we provide analytic solutions in terms of the moments of the initial cloud shape and clarify how the recurrent dynamics (many-body Bloch oscillations) depends on the initial state. Away from the integrable points, we identify and explain the timescale at which Bloch oscillations decohere.
Driven-dissipative light-matter systems can exhibit collective nonequilibrium phenomena due to loss and gain processes on the one hand and effective photon-photon interactions on the other hand. As a generic example we study a bosonic lattice system implemented via an array of driven-dissipative coupled nonlinear resonators with linearly increasing resonance frequencies across the lattice. The model also describes a driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model in a tilted potential without a particle-conservation constraint. We numerically predict a diverse range of stationary and nonstationary states resulting from the interplay of the tilt, tunneling, on-site interactions, and loss and gain processes. Our key finding is that, under weak on-site interactions, the bosons mostly condense into a selected, single-particle Wannier-Stark state without exhibiting the expected Bloch oscillations. As the strength of the on-site interactions increase, a nonstationary regime emerges which, surprisingly, exhibits periodic Bloch-type oscillations. As a direct consequence of the driven-dissipative nature of the system we predict a highly nontrivial phase diagram including regular oscillating as well as chaotic dynamical regimes. While a straightforward photonic implementation using microwave or optical modes is possible, such dynamics might also be observable for an ultracold gas in a vertical lattice with gravity or a tilted external potential.
We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of an impurity driven by a constant external force through a system of homogeneous weakly-interacting bosons in one spatial dimension. The impurity-boson interaction is assumed to be attractive. We show that the impurity exhibits drifted Bloch oscillations in a wide range of forces in the absence of a lattice. We characterize the dynamical response of the host bosons and explain the mechanism underlying the Bloch oscillations. We analyse the behavior of the drift velocity, the Bloch amplitude and the time period of oscillations in a wide range of forces and other system parameters. In contrast to the case of repulsive impurity-boson interaction, the drift velocity exhibits a sub-linear dependence on a weak applied force, Vd∼FαV_d\sim {F}^αVd​∼Fα with a positive exponent ααα smaller than unity. The drift velocity monotonically increases with force, though the scaling behavior varies considerably across different regimes of FFF. Moreover, the amplitude of the velocity oscillations displays rich behavior: it first undergoes a decay with force, reaches a minimum, and then presents a revival, increasing with force.