Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1501.02611 · Physical Review A

Many-body entropies, correlations, and emergence of statistical relaxation in interaction quench dynamics of ultracold bosons

Axel U. J. Lode, Barnali Chakrabarti, V. K. B. Kota

Published Sep 23, 2015• 41 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the quantum many-body dynamics and the entropy production triggered by an interaction quench in a system of $N=10$ interacting identical bosons in an external one-dimensional harmonic trap. The multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) is used for solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation at a high level of accuracy. We consider many-body entropy measures such as the Shannon information entropy, number of principal components, and occupation entropy that are computed from the time-dependent many-body basis set used in MCTDHB. These measures quantify relevant physical features such as irregular or chaotic dynamics, statistical relaxation, and thermalization. We monitor the entropy measures as a function of time and assess how they depend on the interaction strength. For larger interaction strength, the many-body information and occupation entropies approach the value predicted for the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble of random matrices. This implies statistical relaxation. The basis states of MCTDHB are explicitly time-dependent and optimized by the variational principle in a way that minimizes the number of significantly contributing ones. It is therefore a nontrivial fact that statistical relaxation prevails in MCTDHB computations. Moreover, we demonstrate a fundamental connection between the production of entropy, the buildup of correlations and loss of coherence in the system. Our findings imply that mean-field approaches such as the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation cannot capture statistical relaxation and thermalization because they neglect correlations. Since the coherence and correlations are experimentally accessible, their present connection to many-body entropies can be scrutinized to detect statistical relaxation. In this work we use the recent recursive software implementation of the MCTDHB (R-MCTDHB).

DOI
10.1103/physreva.92.033622

Related papers

Numerically exact quantum dynamics of bosons with time-dependent interactions of harmonic type

Axel U. J. Lode, Kaspar Sakmann, Ofir E. Alon +2 more

The exactly solvable quantum many-particle model with harmonic one- and two-particle interaction terms is extended to include time dependency. We show that when the external trap potential and interparticle interaction have a time dependency, the numerically exact solutions of the corresponding time-dependent many-boson Schr\"odinger equation are still available. We use these exact solutions to benchmark the recently developed multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 030402 (2007); Phys. Rev. A 77, 033613 (2008)]. In particular, we benchmark the MCTDHB method for (i) the ground state; (ii) the breathing many-body dynamics activated by a quench scenario where the interparticle interaction strength is suddenly turned on to a finite value; (iii) the nonequilibrium dynamic for driven scenarios where both the trap- and interparticle-interaction potentials are time-dependent. Excellent convergence of the ground state and dynamics is demonstrated. The great relevance of the self-consistency and time adaptivity, which are the intrinsic features of the MCTDHB method, is demonstrated by contrasting the MCTDHB predictions and those obtained within the standard full configuration interaction method spanning a Fock space of the same size, but utilizing as one-particle basis set the fixed-shape eigenstates of the one-particle potential. Connections of the model's results to ultracold Bose-Einstein condensed systems are addressed.

arXiv:1207.5128•Physical Review A•Dec 6, 2012•117 citations

Entropy production and statistical relaxation of dipolar bosons and fermions in interaction quench dynamics

Barnali Chakrabarti, N. D. Chavda, Frederico V. Prudente

We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of dipolar bosons and fermions after a sudden change in the interaction strength from zero to a finite repulsive value. We simulate the interaction quench on the initial state which is the ground state of harmonic potential with noninteracting bosons and fermions. We solve the time-dependent many-boson Schrödinger equation exactly using numerical methods. To understand the many-body dynamics we analyze several measures of many-body information entropy, monitoring their time evolution and assessing their dependence on interaction strength. We establish that for weak interaction quench the dynamics is statistics independent, both dipolar bosons and fermions do not relax, whereas it is significantly different for dipolar bosons from that of dipolar fermions in the stronger interaction quench. While dipolar bosons exhibit concurrent signature of relaxation in all entropy measures, dipolar fermions fail to relax, exhibiting modulated oscillation in all entropy dynamics. For dipolar bosons and larger interaction quench, the many-body information entropy measures dynamically approach the value predicted for the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble of random matrices, implying statistical relaxation and ergodicity. The entire relaxation process and signature of ergodicity are established by three unique features: dynamical delocalization in Hilbert space, violent orbital fragmentation, and saturation of all entropy measures to the maximum entropy states in the long-time dynamics. It highlights the importance of many-body effects with a possible exploration in quantum simulation with ultracold atoms.

arXiv:2507.03719•Physical review. E•Nov 12, 2025•0 citations

Fidelity and Entropy Production in Quench Dynamics of Interacting Bosons in an Optical Lattice

Rhombik Roy, Camille Lévêque, Axel U. J. Lode +2 more

We investigate the dynamics of a few bosons in an optical lattice induced by a quantum quench of a parameter of the many-body Hamiltonian. The evolution of the many-body wave function is obtained by solving the time-dependent many-body Schrödinger equation numerically, using the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB). We report the time evolution of three key quantities, namely, the occupations of the natural orbitals, that is, the eigenvalues of the one-body reduced density matrix, the many-body Shannon information entropy, and the quantum fidelity for a wide range of interactions. Our key motivation is to characterize relaxation processes where various observables of an isolated and interacting quantum many-body system dynamically converge to equilibrium values via the quantum fidelity and via the production of many-body entropy. The interaction, as a parameter, can induce a phase transition in the ground state of the system from a superfluid (SF) state to a Mott-insulator (MI) state. We show that, for a quench to a weak interaction, the fidelity remains close to unity and the entropy exhibits oscillations. Whereas for a quench to strong interactions (SF to MI transition), the relaxation process is characterized by the first collapse of the quantum fidelity and entropy saturation to an equilibrium value. The dip and the non-analytic nature of quantum fidelity is a hallmark of dynamical quantum phase transitions. We quantify the characteristic time at which the quantum fidelity collapses and the entropy saturates.

Quantum Reports•Dec 15, 2019•16 citations

Out of equilibrium many-body expansion dynamics of strongly interacting bosons

Rhombik Roy, Barnali Chakrabarti, A. Gammal

We solve the Schrödinger equation from first principles to investigate the many-body effects in the expansion dynamics of one-dimensional repulsively interacting bosons released from a harmonic trap. We utilize the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) to solve the many-body Schrödinger equation at high level of accuracy. The MCTDHB basis sets are explicitly time-dependent and optimised by variational principle. We probe the expansion dynamics by three key measures; time evolution of one-, two- and three-body densities. We observe when the mean-field theory results to unimodal expansion, the many-body calculation exhibits trimodal expansion dynamics. The many-body features how the initially fragmented bosons independently spreads out with time whereas the mean-field pictures the expansion of the whole cloud. We also present the three different time scale of dynamics of the inner core, outer core and the cloud as a whole. We analyze the key role played by the dynamical fragmentation during expansion. A Strong evidence of the many-body effects is presented in the dynamics of two- and three-body densities which exhibit correlation hole and pronounced delocalization effect.

arXiv:2211.15190•SciPost Physics Core•Nov 3, 2023•9 citations

Phases, many-body entropy measures, and coherence of interacting bosons in optical lattices

Rhombik Roy, A. Gammal, Marios C. Tsatsos +3 more

Already a few bosons with contact interparticle interactions in small optical lattices feature a variety of quantum phases: superfluid, Mott-insulator, and fermionized Tonks gases can be probed in such systems. To detect these phases---pivotal for both experiment and theory---as well as their many-body properties we analyze several distinct measures for the one-body and many-body Shannon information entropies. We exemplify the connection of these entropies with spatial correlations in the many-body state by contrasting them to the Glauber normalized correlation functions. To obtain the ground state for lattices with commensurate filling (i.e., an integer number of particles per site) for the full range of repulsive interparticle interactions we utilize the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) in order to solve the many-boson Schr\"odinger equation. We demonstrate that all emergent phases---the superfluid, the Mott insulator, and the fermionized gas can be characterized equivalently by many-body entropy measures and by Glauber's normalized correlation functions. In sharp contrast, single-particle entropy cannot capture these phases.

arXiv:1712.08792•Physical Review A•Apr 24, 2018•45 citations

Dynamics of Ultracold Bosons in Artificial Gauge Fields—Angular Momentum, Fragmentation, and the Variance of Entropy

Axel U. J. Lode, Sunayana Dutta, Camille Lévêque

We consider the dynamics of two-dimensional interacting ultracold bosons triggered by suddenly switching on an artificial gauge field. The system is initialized in the ground state of a harmonic trapping potential. As a function of the strength of the applied artificial gauge field, we analyze the emergent dynamics by monitoring the angular momentum, the fragmentation as well as the entropy and variance of the entropy of absorption or single-shot images. We solve the underlying time-dependent many-boson Schrödinger equation using the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for indistinguishable particles (MCTDH-X). We find that the artificial gauge field implants angular momentum in the system. Fragmentation-multiple macroscopic eigenvalues of the reduced one-body density matrix-emerges in sync with the dynamics of angular momentum: the bosons in the many-body state develop non-trivial correlations. Fragmentation and angular momentum are experimentally difficult to assess; here, we demonstrate that they can be probed by statistically analyzing the variance of the image entropy of single-shot images that are the standard projective measurement of the state of ultracold atomic systems.

arXiv:2012.09870•Entropy•Mar 25, 2021•7 citations
We study the quantum many-body dynamics and the entropy production triggered by an interaction quench in a system of N=10N=10N=10 interacting identical bosons in an external one-dimensional harmonic trap. The multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) is used for solving the time-dependent Schr"odinger equation at a high level of accuracy. We consider many-body entropy measures such as the Shannon information entropy, number of principal components, and occupation entropy that are computed from the time-dependent many-body basis set used in MCTDHB. These measures quantify relevant physical features such as irregular or chaotic dynamics, statistical relaxation, and thermalization. We monitor the entropy measures as a function of time and assess how they depend on the interaction strength. For larger interaction strength, the many-body information and occupation entropies approach the value predicted for the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble of random matrices. This implies statistical relaxation. The basis states of MCTDHB are explicitly time-dependent and optimized by the variational principle in a way that minimizes the number of significantly contributing ones. It is therefore a nontrivial fact that statistical relaxation prevails in MCTDHB computations. Moreover, we demonstrate a fundamental connection between the production of entropy, the buildup of correlations and loss of coherence in the system. Our findings imply that mean-field approaches such as the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation cannot capture statistical relaxation and thermalization because they neglect correlations. Since the coherence and correlations are experimentally accessible, their present connection to many-body entropies can be scrutinized to detect statistical relaxation. In this work we use the recent recursive software implementation of the MCTDHB (R-MCTDHB).
The exactly solvable quantum many-particle model with harmonic one- and two-particle interaction terms is extended to include time dependency. We show that when the external trap potential and interparticle interaction have a time dependency, the numerically exact solutions of the corresponding time-dependent many-boson Schr\"odinger equation are still available. We use these exact solutions to benchmark the recently developed multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 030402 (2007); Phys. Rev. A 77, 033613 (2008)]. In particular, we benchmark the MCTDHB method for (i) the ground state; (ii) the breathing many-body dynamics activated by a quench scenario where the interparticle interaction strength is suddenly turned on to a finite value; (iii) the nonequilibrium dynamic for driven scenarios where both the trap- and interparticle-interaction potentials are time-dependent. Excellent convergence of the ground state and dynamics is demonstrated. The great relevance of the self-consistency and time adaptivity, which are the intrinsic features of the MCTDHB method, is demonstrated by contrasting the MCTDHB predictions and those obtained within the standard full configuration interaction method spanning a Fock space of the same size, but utilizing as one-particle basis set the fixed-shape eigenstates of the one-particle potential. Connections of the model's results to ultracold Bose-Einstein condensed systems are addressed.
We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of dipolar bosons and fermions after a sudden change in the interaction strength from zero to a finite repulsive value. We simulate the interaction quench on the initial state which is the ground state of harmonic potential with noninteracting bosons and fermions. We solve the time-dependent many-boson Schrödinger equation exactly using numerical methods. To understand the many-body dynamics we analyze several measures of many-body information entropy, monitoring their time evolution and assessing their dependence on interaction strength. We establish that for weak interaction quench the dynamics is statistics independent, both dipolar bosons and fermions do not relax, whereas it is significantly different for dipolar bosons from that of dipolar fermions in the stronger interaction quench. While dipolar bosons exhibit concurrent signature of relaxation in all entropy measures, dipolar fermions fail to relax, exhibiting modulated oscillation in all entropy dynamics. For dipolar bosons and larger interaction quench, the many-body information entropy measures dynamically approach the value predicted for the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble of random matrices, implying statistical relaxation and ergodicity. The entire relaxation process and signature of ergodicity are established by three unique features: dynamical delocalization in Hilbert space, violent orbital fragmentation, and saturation of all entropy measures to the maximum entropy states in the long-time dynamics. It highlights the importance of many-body effects with a possible exploration in quantum simulation with ultracold atoms.
We investigate the dynamics of a few bosons in an optical lattice induced by a quantum quench of a parameter of the many-body Hamiltonian. The evolution of the many-body wave function is obtained by solving the time-dependent many-body Schrödinger equation numerically, using the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB). We report the time evolution of three key quantities, namely, the occupations of the natural orbitals, that is, the eigenvalues of the one-body reduced density matrix, the many-body Shannon information entropy, and the quantum fidelity for a wide range of interactions. Our key motivation is to characterize relaxation processes where various observables of an isolated and interacting quantum many-body system dynamically converge to equilibrium values via the quantum fidelity and via the production of many-body entropy. The interaction, as a parameter, can induce a phase transition in the ground state of the system from a superfluid (SF) state to a Mott-insulator (MI) state. We show that, for a quench to a weak interaction, the fidelity remains close to unity and the entropy exhibits oscillations. Whereas for a quench to strong interactions (SF to MI transition), the relaxation process is characterized by the first collapse of the quantum fidelity and entropy saturation to an equilibrium value. The dip and the non-analytic nature of quantum fidelity is a hallmark of dynamical quantum phase transitions. We quantify the characteristic time at which the quantum fidelity collapses and the entropy saturates.
We solve the Schrödinger equation from first principles to investigate the many-body effects in the expansion dynamics of one-dimensional repulsively interacting bosons released from a harmonic trap. We utilize the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) to solve the many-body Schrödinger equation at high level of accuracy. The MCTDHB basis sets are explicitly time-dependent and optimised by variational principle. We probe the expansion dynamics by three key measures; time evolution of one-, two- and three-body densities. We observe when the mean-field theory results to unimodal expansion, the many-body calculation exhibits trimodal expansion dynamics. The many-body features how the initially fragmented bosons independently spreads out with time whereas the mean-field pictures the expansion of the whole cloud. We also present the three different time scale of dynamics of the inner core, outer core and the cloud as a whole. We analyze the key role played by the dynamical fragmentation during expansion. A Strong evidence of the many-body effects is presented in the dynamics of two- and three-body densities which exhibit correlation hole and pronounced delocalization effect.
Already a few bosons with contact interparticle interactions in small optical lattices feature a variety of quantum phases: superfluid, Mott-insulator, and fermionized Tonks gases can be probed in such systems. To detect these phases---pivotal for both experiment and theory---as well as their many-body properties we analyze several distinct measures for the one-body and many-body Shannon information entropies. We exemplify the connection of these entropies with spatial correlations in the many-body state by contrasting them to the Glauber normalized correlation functions. To obtain the ground state for lattices with commensurate filling (i.e., an integer number of particles per site) for the full range of repulsive interparticle interactions we utilize the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) in order to solve the many-boson Schr\"odinger equation. We demonstrate that all emergent phases---the superfluid, the Mott insulator, and the fermionized gas can be characterized equivalently by many-body entropy measures and by Glauber's normalized correlation functions. In sharp contrast, single-particle entropy cannot capture these phases.
We consider the dynamics of two-dimensional interacting ultracold bosons triggered by suddenly switching on an artificial gauge field. The system is initialized in the ground state of a harmonic trapping potential. As a function of the strength of the applied artificial gauge field, we analyze the emergent dynamics by monitoring the angular momentum, the fragmentation as well as the entropy and variance of the entropy of absorption or single-shot images. We solve the underlying time-dependent many-boson Schrödinger equation using the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for indistinguishable particles (MCTDH-X). We find that the artificial gauge field implants angular momentum in the system. Fragmentation-multiple macroscopic eigenvalues of the reduced one-body density matrix-emerges in sync with the dynamics of angular momentum: the bosons in the many-body state develop non-trivial correlations. Fragmentation and angular momentum are experimentally difficult to assess; here, we demonstrate that they can be probed by statistically analyzing the variance of the image entropy of single-shot images that are the standard projective measurement of the state of ultracold atomic systems.