We study the signature of classical scale invariance in the far-from-equilibrium quantum dynamics of two-dimensional Bose gases. We show that the density profile displays a scale invariant logarithmic singularity near the center. In addition, the density oscillates due to quantum beats with universal structures. Namely, the frequencies of the beats can be connected with one another by a universal discrete scale transformation induced by the classical scale invariance. The experimental applicability of these results is then discussed.
We study the signature of classical scale invariance in the far-from-equilibrium quantum dynamics of two-dimensional Bose gases. We show that the density profile displays a scale invariant logarithmic singularity near the center. In addition, the density oscillates due to quantum beats with universal structures. Namely, the frequencies of the beats can be connected with one another by a universal discrete scale transformation induced by the classical scale invariance. The experimental applicability of these results is then discussed.
Scale invariance is conventionally discussed in the context of critical phenomena near a continuous phase transition. In atomic gases, a new class of scale invariant systems emerges, which we call “intrinsic scale invariance.” In these systems, the scaling symmetry does not rely on a phase transition, but comes from the balance of kinetic and interaction energy at different length scales. Three examples are discussed here: three-dimensional unitary Fermi gas, two-dimensional dilute Bose gas, and unitary Bose gas. The first two are invariant under continuous scaling transformation, and thus they share the same universal thermodynamics. Unitary Bose gas is a special case with expected discrete scaling symmetry because of Efimov three-body physics.We show that the discrete scale invariance can be captured by a complex scaling dimension and suggest a universal form for the observables. Introduction The achievement of atomic Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in 1995 initiated a new adventure to explore quantum many-body phenomena in the gas phase, a journey that has yielded much excitement and is still progressing fast. Because of their diluteness, ultracold atomic gases can be precisely modeled and characterized with high accuracy. In addition, new opportunities have emerged in the past decade to prepare cold atoms in the strong coupling regime. By loading the samples into optical lattices [1] or tuning them near a Feshbach resonance [2], for instance, cold atoms offer a unique platform to investigate strongly correlated quantum phenomena. Examples include the superfluid-Mott insulator transition [3] (see also Chapter 13), BEC-BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer) crossover [4, 5, 6, 7] (see also related overview in Chapter 12), Efimov trimer states [8], and Berezinskii- Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in two dimensions [9] (see also Chapter 10). One key motivation in these explorations is to uncover new, universal laws that underpin the behavior of strong-coupled few- and many-body quantum systems. In this chapter, we discuss “scale invariance” as a generic attribute in various cold atom systems, including all of the aforementioned examples. While scale invariance is conventionally discussed in the context of critical phenomena, the cold atom systems that interest us belong to a new class, which we call “intrinsic scale invariance.” In the following, we first overview the main features of different types of scale invariance and discuss related examples in cold atom systems.
Recently universal dynamic scaling is observed in several systems, which exhibit a spatiotemporal self-similar scaling behavior, analogous to the spatial scaling near phase transition. The latter one arises from the emergent continuous scaling symmetry. Motivated by this, we investigate the possible relation between the scaling dynamics and the continuous scaling symmetry in this paper. We derive a theorem that the scaling invariance of the quenched Hamiltonian and the initial density matrix can lead to the universal dynamic scaling. It is further demonstrated both in a two-body system analytically and in a many-body system numerically. For the latter one, we calculate the dynamics of quantum gases quenched from the zero interaction to a finite interaction via the non-equilibrium high-temperature virial expansion. A dynamic scaling of the momentum distribution appears in certain momentum-time windows at unitarity as well as in the weak interacting limit. Remarkably, this universal scaling dynamics persists approximately with smaller scaling exponents even if the scaling symmetry is fairly broken. Our findings may offer a new perspective to interpret the related experiments. We also study the Contact dynamics in the BEC–BCS crossover. Surprisingly, the half-way time displays a maximum near unitarity while some damping oscillations occur on the BEC side due to the dimer state, which can be used to detect possible two-body bound states in experiments.
This paper gives a systematic review on studies of dimensional effects in pure- and quasi-two-dimensional (2D) Bose gases, focusing on the role of dimensionality in the fundamental relation among the universal behavior of breathing mode, scale invariance and dynamic symmetry. First, we illustrate the emergence of universal breathing mode in the case of pure 2D Bose gases, and elaborate on its connection with the scale invariance of the Hamiltonian and the hidden SO(2, 1) symmetry. Next, we proceed to quasi-2D Bose gases, where excitations are frozen in one direction and the scattering behavior exhibits a 3D to 2D crossover. We show that the original SO(2, 1) symmetry is broken by arbitrarily small 2D effects in scattering, which consequently shifts the breathing mode from the universal frequency. The predicted shift rises significantly from the order of 0.5% to more than 5% in transiting from the 3D-scattering to the 2D-scattering regime. Observing this dimensional effect directly would present an important step in revealing the interplay between dimensionality and quantum fluctuations in quasi-2D.
Coarsening of an isolated far-from-equilibrium quantum system is a paradigmatic many-body phenomenon, relevant from subnuclear to cosmological length scales and predicted to feature universal dynamic scaling. Here, we observed universal scaling in the coarsening of a homogeneous two-dimensional Bose gas, with exponents that match analytical predictions. For different initial states, we reveal universal scaling in the experimentally accessible finite-time dynamics by elucidating and accounting for the initial-state-dependent prescaling effects. The methods we introduce allow direct comparison between cold-atom experiments and nonequilibrium field theory and are applicable to any study of universality far from equilibrium.
Spatio-temporal scaling dynamics connected to non-thermal fixed points has been suggested as a universal framework to describe the relaxation of isolated far-from-equilibrium systems. Experimental studies in weakly-interacting cold atom systems have found scaling dynamics connected to specific attractors. In our experiments, we study a quantum gas of strongly interacting 6Li2 Feshbach molecules, brought far out of equilibrium by imprinting a white-noise phase profile. The observed relaxation follows the same universal dynamics as for the previously observed formation of the order parameter in a shock-cooled gas of weakly interacting 87Rb atoms. Our results point to a single universal fixed point with a large basin of attraction governing the relaxation of quasi-1D bosonic systems, independent of their specific initial conditions and microscopic details.
We explore the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of Bose gases in a universal regime associated to nonthermal fixed points. While previous investigations concentrated on scaling functions and exponents describing equal-time correlations, we compute the additional scaling functions and dynamic exponent z characterizing the frequency dependence or dispersion from unequal-time correlations. This allows us to compare the characteristic condensation and correlation times from a finite-size scaling analysis depending on the system's volume.