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:1812.06709 · Physical Review Letters

Universal Dynamics of a Degenerate Bose Gas Quenched to Unitarity

Chao Gao, Mingyuan Sun, Peng Zhang, Hui Zhai

Published Jan 30, 2020• 20 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Motivated by an unexpected experimental observation from the Cambridge group, [Eigen et al., Nature 563, 221 (2018)], we study the evolution of the momentum distribution of a degenerate Bose gas quenched from the weakly interacting regime to the unitary regime. For the two-body problem, we establish a relation that connects the momentum distribution at a long time to a subleading term in the initial wave function. For the many-body problem, we employ the time-dependent Bogoliubov variational wave function and find that, in certain momentum regimes, the momentum distribution at long times displays the same exponential behavior found by the experiment. Moreover, we find that this behavior is universal and is independent of the short-range details of the interaction potential. Consistent with the relation found in the two-body problem, we also numerically show that this exponential form is hidden in the same subleading term of the Bogoliubov wave function in the initial stages. Conceptually, our results show that, for quench to the universal regime and coherent quantum dynamics afterward, the universal longtime behavior is hidden in the initial state.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.124.040403

Related papers

Early-time dynamics of Bose gases quenched into the strongly interacting regime

A. Muñoz de las Heras, Meera M. Parish, Francesca Maria Marchetti

The crossover from shallow to deep interaction quenches of the very early-time dynamics of a degenerate Bose gas is analyzed by using a time-dependent variational formalism, which self-consistently describes the excitation of particles out of the condensate in pairs only. In the unitary regime, the model leads to a universal scaling behavior of the typical growth time of the momentum distribution in agreement with recent experimental observations.

arXiv:1811.12135•Physical Review A•Feb 21, 2019•17 citations

Cumulant theory of the unitary Bose gas: Prethermal and Efimovian dynamics

V. E. Colussi, Hadrien Kurkjian, Mathias Van Regemortel +4 more

We study the quench of a degenerate ultracold Bose gas to the unitary regime, where interactions are as strong as allowed by quantum mechanics. We lay the foundation of a cumulant theory able to simultaneously capture the three-body Efimov effect and ergodic evolution. After an initial period of rapid quantum depletion, a universal prethermal stage is established, characterized by a kinetic temperature and an emergent Bogoliubov dispersion law, while the microscopic degrees of freedom remain far from equilibrium. Integrability is then broken by higher-order interaction terms in the many-body Hamiltonian, leading to a momentum-dependent departure from power law to decaying exponential behavior of the occupation numbers at large momentum. We also find signatures of the Efimov effect in the many-body dynamics and make a precise identification between the observed beating phenomenon and the binding energy of an Efimov trimer. Throughout the paper, our predictions for a uniform gas are quantitatively compared with experimental results for quenched unitary Bose gases in uniform potentials.

arXiv:2007.08935•Physical Review A•Dec 11, 2020•23 citations

Resonance triplet dynamics in the quenched unitary Bose gas

J. van de Kraats, D. J. M. Ahmed-Braun, V. E. Colussi +1 more

The quenched unitary Bose gas is a paradigmatic example of a strongly interacting out-of-equilibrium quantum system, whose dynamics become difficult to describe theoretically due to the growth of non-Gaussian quantum correlations. We develop a conserving many-body theory capable of capturing these effects, allowing us to model the postquench dynamics in the previously inaccessible time regime where the gas departs from the universal prethermal stage. Our results show that this departure is driven by the growth of strong lossless three-body correlations, rather than atomic losses, thus framing the heating of the gas in this regime as a fully coherent phenomenon. We uncover the specific few-body scattering processes that affect this heating and show that the expected connection between the two-body and three-body contacts and the tail of the momentum distribution is obscured following the prethermal stage, explaining the absence of this connection in experiments. Our general framework, which reframes the dynamics of unitary quantum systems in terms of explicit connections to microscopic physics, can be broadly applied to any quantum system containing strong few-body correlations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

arXiv:2309.04587•Physical Review Research•Mar 11, 2024•4 citations

High Temperature Virial Expansion to Universal Quench Dynamics

Mingyuan Sun, Peng Zhang, Hui Zhai

High temperature virial expansion is a powerful tool in equilibrium statistical mechanics. In this Letter we generalize the high temperature virial expansion approach to treat far-from-equilibrium quench dynamics. As an application of our framework, we study the dynamics of a Bose gas quenched from noninteracting to unitarity, and we compare our theoretical results with unexplained experimental results by the Cambridge group [Eigen et al., Nature 563, 221 (2018)]. We show that, during the quench dynamics, the momentum distribution decreases for the low-momentum part with k<k^{*}, and increases for high-momentum part with k>k^{*}, where k^{*} is a characteristic momentum scale separating the low- and the high-momentum regimes. We determine the universal value of k^{*}λ that agrees perfectly with the experiment, with λ being the thermal de Broglie wavelength. We also find a jump of the halfway relaxation time across k^{*}λ and the nonmonotonic behavior of energy distribution, both of which agree with the experiment. Finally, we address the issue whether the longtime steady state thermalizes or not, and we find that this state reaches a partial thermalization, namely, it thermalizes for the low-energy part with kλ≲1 but does not thermalize for the very high momentum tail with kλ≫1. Our framework can also be applied to quench dynamics in other systems.

arXiv:2006.07766•Physical Review Letters•Sep 10, 2020•12 citations

Universal dynamic scaling and Contact dynamics in quenched quantum gases

Jia-Nan Cui, Zhengqiang Zhou, Mingyuan Sun

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.

arXiv:2203.14245•Frontiers of Physics•Dec 11, 2023•1 citation

Quenching to unitarity: Quantum dynamics in a three-dimensional Bose gas

A. G. Sykes, John Corson, José Paulo D'Incao +5 more

We study the dynamics of a zero-temperature Bose condensate following a sudden quench of the scattering length from noninteracting to unitarity (infinite scattering length). We apply three complementary approaches to understand the momentum distribution and loss rate. First, using a time-dependent variational ansatz for the many-body state, we calculate the dynamics of the momentum distribution. Second, we demonstrate that, at short times and large momenta compared to those set by the density, the physics can be understood within a simple, analytic two-body model. We make a quantitative prediction for the evolution of Tan's contact and find features in the momentum distribution that are absent in equilibrium. Third, we study three-body loss at finite density under the same dynamic scenario. We find lifetimes that are long compared to the saturation times of large-momentum modes, and we relate this result to the three-body inelasticity parameter.

arXiv:1309.0828•Physical Review A•Feb 3, 2014•85 citations
Motivated by an unexpected experimental observation from the Cambridge group, [Eigen et al., Nature 563, 221 (2018)], we study the evolution of the momentum distribution of a degenerate Bose gas quenched from the weakly interacting regime to the unitary regime. For the two-body problem, we establish a relation that connects the momentum distribution at a long time to a subleading term in the initial wave function. For the many-body problem, we employ the time-dependent Bogoliubov variational wave function and find that, in certain momentum regimes, the momentum distribution at long times displays the same exponential behavior found by the experiment. Moreover, we find that this behavior is universal and is independent of the short-range details of the interaction potential. Consistent with the relation found in the two-body problem, we also numerically show that this exponential form is hidden in the same subleading term of the Bogoliubov wave function in the initial stages. Conceptually, our results show that, for quench to the universal regime and coherent quantum dynamics afterward, the universal longtime behavior is hidden in the initial state.
We study the quench of a degenerate ultracold Bose gas to the unitary regime, where interactions are as strong as allowed by quantum mechanics. We lay the foundation of a cumulant theory able to simultaneously capture the three-body Efimov effect and ergodic evolution. After an initial period of rapid quantum depletion, a universal prethermal stage is established, characterized by a kinetic temperature and an emergent Bogoliubov dispersion law, while the microscopic degrees of freedom remain far from equilibrium. Integrability is then broken by higher-order interaction terms in the many-body Hamiltonian, leading to a momentum-dependent departure from power law to decaying exponential behavior of the occupation numbers at large momentum. We also find signatures of the Efimov effect in the many-body dynamics and make a precise identification between the observed beating phenomenon and the binding energy of an Efimov trimer. Throughout the paper, our predictions for a uniform gas are quantitatively compared with experimental results for quenched unitary Bose gases in uniform potentials.
The quenched unitary Bose gas is a paradigmatic example of a strongly interacting out-of-equilibrium quantum system, whose dynamics become difficult to describe theoretically due to the growth of non-Gaussian quantum correlations. We develop a conserving many-body theory capable of capturing these effects, allowing us to model the postquench dynamics in the previously inaccessible time regime where the gas departs from the universal prethermal stage. Our results show that this departure is driven by the growth of strong lossless three-body correlations, rather than atomic losses, thus framing the heating of the gas in this regime as a fully coherent phenomenon. We uncover the specific few-body scattering processes that affect this heating and show that the expected connection between the two-body and three-body contacts and the tail of the momentum distribution is obscured following the prethermal stage, explaining the absence of this connection in experiments. Our general framework, which reframes the dynamics of unitary quantum systems in terms of explicit connections to microscopic physics, can be broadly applied to any quantum system containing strong few-body correlations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
High temperature virial expansion is a powerful tool in equilibrium statistical mechanics. In this Letter we generalize the high temperature virial expansion approach to treat far-from-equilibrium quench dynamics. As an application of our framework, we study the dynamics of a Bose gas quenched from noninteracting to unitarity, and we compare our theoretical results with unexplained experimental results by the Cambridge group [Eigen et al., Nature 563, 221 (2018)]. We show that, during the quench dynamics, the momentum distribution decreases for the low-momentum part with k<k^{*}, and increases for high-momentum part with k>k^{*}, where k^{*} is a characteristic momentum scale separating the low- and the high-momentum regimes. We determine the universal value of k^{*}λ that agrees perfectly with the experiment, with λ being the thermal de Broglie wavelength. We also find a jump of the halfway relaxation time across k^{*}λ and the nonmonotonic behavior of energy distribution, both of which agree with the experiment. Finally, we address the issue whether the longtime steady state thermalizes or not, and we find that this state reaches a partial thermalization, namely, it thermalizes for the low-energy part with kλ≲1 but does not thermalize for the very high momentum tail with kλ≫1. Our framework can also be applied to quench dynamics in other 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.
We study the dynamics of a zero-temperature Bose condensate following a sudden quench of the scattering length from noninteracting to unitarity (infinite scattering length). We apply three complementary approaches to understand the momentum distribution and loss rate. First, using a time-dependent variational ansatz for the many-body state, we calculate the dynamics of the momentum distribution. Second, we demonstrate that, at short times and large momenta compared to those set by the density, the physics can be understood within a simple, analytic two-body model. We make a quantitative prediction for the evolution of Tan's contact and find features in the momentum distribution that are absent in equilibrium. Third, we study three-body loss at finite density under the same dynamic scenario. We find lifetimes that are long compared to the saturation times of large-momentum modes, and we relate this result to the three-body inelasticity parameter.