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arXiv:1703.07291 · Physical Review A

Mesoscopic quantum superpositions in bimodal Bose-Einstein condensates: Decoherence and strategies to counteract it

Krzysztof Pawłowski, Matteo Fadel, Philipp Treutlein, Yvan Castin, Alice Sinatra

Published Jun 15, 2017• 31 citations
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Abstract

We study theoretically the interaction-induced generation of mesoscopic coherent spin state superpositions (small-particle-number cat states) from an initial coherent spin state in bimodal Bose-Einstein condensates and the subsequent phase revival, including decoherence due to particle losses and fluctuations of the total particle number. In a full multimode description, we propose a preparation procedure of the initial coherent spin state and we study the effect of preexisting thermal fluctuations on the phase revival, and on the spin and orbito-spinorial cat-state fidelities.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.95.063609

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We study theoretically the interaction-induced generation of mesoscopic coherent spin state superpositions (small-particle-number cat states) from an initial coherent spin state in bimodal Bose-Einstein condensates and the subsequent phase revival, including decoherence due to particle losses and fluctuations of the total particle number. In a full multimode description, we propose a preparation procedure of the initial coherent spin state and we study the effect of preexisting thermal fluctuations on the phase revival, and on the spin and orbito-spinorial cat-state fidelities.
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We study the possibility to create many-particle Schrödinger cat-like states by using a Feshbach resonance to reverse the sign of the scattering length of a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a double-well potential. To address the issue of experimental verification of coherence in the cat-like state, we study the revival of the initial condensate state in the presence of environmentally-induced decoherence. As a source of decoherence, we consider the interaction between the atoms and the electromagnetic vacuum, due to the polarization induced by an incident laser field. We find that the resulting decoherence is directly related to the rate at which spontaneously scattered photons carry away sufficient information to distinguish between the two atom-distributions which make-up the cat state. We show that for a 'perfect' cat-state, a single scattered photon will bring about a collapse of the superposition, while a less-than-perfect cat-like state can survive multiple scatterings before collapse occurs. In addition, we study the dephasing effect of atom-atom collisions on the cat-like states.
We study the possibility of creating many-particle macroscopic quantum superposition (Schr\"odinger cat)--like states by using a Feshbach resonance to reverse the sign of the scattering length of a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a double-well potential. To address the issue of the experimental verification of coherence in the catlike state, we study the revival of the initial condensate state in the presence of environmentally induced decoherence. As a source of decoherence, we consider the interaction between the atoms and the electromagnetic vacuum, due to the polarization induced by an incident laser field. We find that the resulting decoherence is directly related to the rate at which spontaneously scattered photons carry away sufficient information to distinguish between the two atom distributions which make-up the cat state. We show that for a ``perfect'' cat state, a single scattered photon will bring about a collapse of the superposition, while a less-than-perfect catlike state can survive multiple scatterings before the collapse occurs. In addition, we study the dephasing effect of atom-atom collisions on the catlike states.
We consider dynamically generated spin squeezing in interacting bimodal condensates. We show that particle losses and non-zero temperature effects in a multimode theory completely change the scaling of the best squeezing for large atom numbers. We present the new scalings and we give approximate analytical expressions for the squeezing in the thermodynamic limit. Besides reviewing our recent theoretical results, we give here a simple physical picture of how decoherence acts to limit the squeezing. We show in particular that under certain conditions the decoherence due to losses and non-zero temperature acts as a simple dephasing.
We consider a quantum superposition of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC's) in two immiscible internal states. A decoherence rate for the resulting Schr\"odinger cat is calculated and shown to be a significant threat to this macroscopic quantum superposition of BEC's. An experimental scenario is outlined where the decoherence rate due to the thermal cloud is dramatically reduced thanks to trap engineering and ``symmetrization'' of the environment, which allow the Schr\"odinger cat to be an approximate pointer state.
We study a two-level atom coupled to a Bose-Einstein condensate. We show that the rules governing the decoherence of mesoscopic superpositions involving different classical-like states of the condensate can be probed using this system. This scheme is applicable irrespective of whether the condensate is initially in a coherent, thermal, or more generally, in any mixture of coherent states. The effects of atom loss and finite temperature to the decoherence can therefore be studied. We also discuss the various noise sources causing the decoherence.