Abstract The ability to cool quantum gases into the quantum degenerate realm has opened up possibilities for an extreme level of quantum-state control. In this paper, we investigate one such control protocol that demonstrates the resonant amplification of quasimomentum pairs from a Bose–Einstein condensate by the periodic modulation of the two-body s-wave scattering length. This shows a capability to selectively amplify quantum fluctuations with a predetermined momentum, where the momentum value can be spectroscopically tuned. A classical external field that excites pairs of particles with the same energy but opposite momenta is reminiscent of the coherently-driven nonlinearity in a parametric amplifier crystal in nonlinear optics. For this reason, it may be anticipated that the evolution will generate a ‘squeezed’ matter-wave state in the quasiparticle mode on resonance with the modulation frequency. Our model and analysis is motivated by a recent experiment by Clark et al that observed a time-of-flight pattern similar to an exploding firework (Clark et al 2017 Nature 551 356–9). Since the drive is a highly coherent process, we interpret the observed firework patterns as arising from a monotonic growth in the two-body correlation amplitude, so that the jets should contain correlated atom pairs with nearly equal and opposite momenta. We propose a potential future experiment based on applying Ramsey interferometry to experimentally probe these pair correlations.
Abstract The ability to cool quantum gases into the quantum degenerate realm has opened up possibilities for an extreme level of quantum-state control. In this paper, we investigate one such control protocol that demonstrates the resonant amplification of quasimomentum pairs from a Bose–Einstein condensate by the periodic modulation of the two-body s-wave scattering length. This shows a capability to selectively amplify quantum fluctuations with a predetermined momentum, where the momentum value can be spectroscopically tuned. A classical external field that excites pairs of particles with the same energy but opposite momenta is reminiscent of the coherently-driven nonlinearity in a parametric amplifier crystal in nonlinear optics. For this reason, it may be anticipated that the evolution will generate a ‘squeezed’ matter-wave state in the quasiparticle mode on resonance with the modulation frequency. Our model and analysis is motivated by a recent experiment by Clark et al that observed a time-of-flight pattern similar to an exploding firework (Clark et al 2017 Nature 551 356–9). Since the drive is a highly coherent process, we interpret the observed firework patterns as arising from a monotonic growth in the two-body correlation amplitude, so that the jets should contain correlated atom pairs with nearly equal and opposite momenta. We propose a potential future experiment based on applying Ramsey interferometry to experimentally probe these pair correlations.
Emission of matter-wave jets has been recently observed in a Bose-Einstein condensate confined by a cylindrical box potential, induced by a periodically modulated interparticle interaction [L. W. Clark et al., Nature (London) 551, 356 (2017)]. In this paper we apply the time-dependent Bogoliubov theory to study the quantum dynamics and the correlation effects observed in this highly nonequilibrium phenomenon. Without any fitting parameter, our theoretical calculations on the number of ejected atoms and the angular density correlations are in excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental measurements. The exponential growth in time of the ejected atoms can be understood in terms of a dynamical instability associated with the modulation of the interaction. We interpret the angular density correlation of the jets as the Hanbury Brown--Twiss effect between the excited quasiparticles with different angular momenta, and our theory explains the puzzling observation of the asymmetric density correlations between the jets with the same and opposite momenta. Our theory can also identify the main factors that control the height and width of the peaks in the density correlation function, which can be directly verified in future experiments.
The understanding of quantum many-body physics is the key to develop new quantum technologies including novel quantum materials, high-precision sensors, and quantum computers. However, understanding the general quantum many-body physics is extremely difficult, particularly when such systems are driven far from an equilibrium state. Ultracold atoms, a clean, fully controllable, and coherent quantum many-body systems can provide useful insights into the fundamental properties of quantum matter. This thesis discusses experiments on studying nonequilibrium dynamics in driven ultracold bosonic atoms with fantastic static and dynamical controls of the inter-particle interactions through Feshbach resonances and external trapping potentials using optical lattices and digital micromirror device (DMD). With this versatile apparatus, we first study the critical dynamics across a quantum phase transition in shaken optical lattices. Across a ferromagnetic transition where the Z2 inversion symmetry is broken, we are interested in how the system evolves toward the new ground states generally with a different symmetry. Utilizing the phase imprinting technique with DMD, we show that the macroscopic coherence is maintained across the phase transition, the system undergoes a coherent population transfer of particles toward lower energy states and quantum fluctuations determine the domain structure but do not destroy the macroscopic coherence. We then present the complex correlations rising from the matter-wave version of a high-harmonic generation with oscillating interaction. This high-harmonic generation of matterwave is a result of stimulated secondary collisions. The stimulated primary collisions, two condensate atoms collide absorbing one energy quantum from the oscillating field, give rise to the first observation of Bose fireworks. The scattered atoms from the primary collisions can further collide with each other or the ground-state atoms from the condensate and such secondary collisions promote atoms to higher momentum modes. Moreover, we show the density-wave dynamics prior to the jets emission within the condensate with oscillating interactions and explain the asymmetry in the jets emission pattern based on near-field interference. Besides, we further demonstrate the spatial and temporal phase coherence of the emitted jets using matter-wave interference and connect our matter-wave jets emission to the famous Unruh radiation in relativistic physics.
In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in the field of quantum many-body physics. Understanding the complex and often unintuitive behavior of systems containing interacting quantum constituents is not only fascinating but also crucial for developing the next generation of quantum technology, including better materials, sensors, and computers. Yet understanding such systems remains a challenge, particularly when considering the dynamics which occur when they are excited far from equilibrium. Ultracold atomic gases provide an ideal system with which to study dynamics by enabling clean, well-controlled experiments at length- and time-scales which allow us to observe the dynamics directly. ,This thesis describes experiments on the many-body dynamics of ultracold, bosonic cesium atoms. Our apparatus epitomizes the versatility of ultracold atoms by providing extensive control over the quantum gas. In particular, we will discuss our use of a digital micromirror device to project arbitrary, dynamic external potentials onto the gas; our development of a powerful new scheme for optically controlling Feshbach resonances to enable spatiotemporal control of the interactions between atoms; and our use of near-resonant shaking lattices to modify the kinetic energy of atoms.,Taking advantage of this flexible apparatus, we have been able to test a longstanding conjecture based on the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which says that the dynamics of a system crossing a quantum phase transition should obey a universal scaling symmetry of space and time. After accounting for this scaling symmetry, critical dynamics would be essentially independent of the rate at which a system crossed a phase transition. We tested the universal scaling of critical dynamics by using near-resonant shaking to drive Bose-Einstein condensates across an effectively ferromagnetic quantum phase transition. After crossing the phase transition, condensates divide themselves spatially into domains with finite quasimomentum. We measured the growth of these domains over time and the correlation functions describing their spatial distribution by directly reconstructing the quasimomentum distribution. We observed the expected scaling laws across more than an order of magnitude in the crossing rate, aside from which the observed critical dynamics were indeed independent of the crossing rate. These experiments provide strong support for the universal scaling symmetry of space and time and the extension of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism to quantum phase transitions.,We also present the first observation of Bose Fireworks: the sudden emission of many bright, narrow jets of atoms from condensates with oscillating interaction strength. Even though the underlying inelastic s-wave collisions induced by oscillating interactions are isotropic, the collective nature of collisions in the condensate causes the outgoing bosonic atoms to bunch into narrow jets in the horizontal plane. This bunching results from runaway stimulated collisions, which we find can only occur above a threshold oscillation amplitude. The observed atom number in the jets suggests that they are seeded by quantum fluctuations. Moreover, in azimuthal correlation functions we observe forward correlations consistent with theory, which saturate the limit from the uncertainty principle. We also observe partial correlation between counterpropagating jets. Bose Fireworks provide a well-controlled platform for understanding the diverse class of systems in which a coherent source rapidly emits pairs of counterpropagating bosons.
Emission of matter wave jets has been recently observed in a Bose-Einstein condensate confined by a cylindrical box potential, induced by a periodically modulated inter-particle interaction (Nature {\bf 551}, 356 (2017)). In this letter we apply the number-conserving time-dependent Bogoliubov theory to study the highly non-equilibrium quantum dynamics in this system. Without any fitting parameter, our theoretical calculations on the dynamics of the jet emission and the angular density correlation are in excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental measurements. In particular, our theory interprets the angular density correlation of the jets as the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss effect between the excited quasi-particles with different angular momenta, and this explains the puzzling observation of the asymmetric density correlations between the jets with the same and opposite momenta. We also analytically show that the number of atoms in the jet emission increases quadratically at early times and is followed by an exponential growth at later times.
Bose-Einstein condensates of atoms with non-zero spin are known to constitute an ideal system to investigate fundamental properties of magnetic superfluids. More recently it was realized that they also provide the fascinating opportunity to investigate the macroscopic amplification of quantum and classical fluctuations. This is strikingly manifested in a sample initially prepared in the m F = 0 state, where spin-changing collisions triggered by quantum fluctuations may lead to the creation of correlated pairs in m F = ±1. We show that the pair creation efficiency is strongly influenced by the interplay between the external trapping potential and the Zeeman effect. It thus reflects the confinement-induced magnetic field dependence of elementary spin excitations of the condensate. Remarkably, pair production in our experiments is therefore characterized by a multi-resonant dependence on the magnetic field. Pair creation at these resonances acts as strong parametric matter-wave amplifier. Depending on the resonance condition, this amplification can be extremely sensitive or insensitive to the presence of seed atoms. We show that pair creation at a resonance which is insensitive to the presence of seed atoms is triggered purely by quantum fluctuations and thus the system acts as a matter-wave amplifier for the vacuum state.
In standard cosmological models, inflation is driven by a quantum field, the inflaton, whos constant energy density drove the superluminal expansion of the universe [1]. When inflation stops, the universe has an extremely low density btu the inflaton field starts to oscillate arround its minimum of energy and decays into entengled pairs of particles [2], known as the pre-heating phase. Created pairs of particles then start to interact leading to decoherence and thermalization : the re-heating stage. If in situ observation of inflaton particle creation process is impossible, this pair production through parametric amplification is analogous to the creation of phonon pairs in a Bose-Einstein (BEC) condensate whose interaction strenght is time modulated. Modulating the stiffness of a dipole trap of a cigar-shape BEC being equivalent to modulate the effective one-dimensionnal interaction strenght in a BEC, we are able to probe the correlation of entengled metastable helium atoms by the use of a micro-channel plate detector (MCP). Our experimental procedure is the following [3] : we modulate in time the trap stiffness of the dipole trap laser and then release the trap (see figure 1). During expansion, the phonon kinetic energy is adiabatically transferred to one atom that is detected by the MCP after a 300 ms time of flight. The amount of created phonon pairs is expected to depend on the duration of the excitation, its amplitude and the excitation frequency. However, the region in which the entenglement of the phonon pairs can be observed is expected to be quite narrow [4]. We propose to investigate the entenglement and correlations of those pairs of particles. [1] L. Kofman, A. Linde, and A. Starobinsky, Phys. Rev. D 56, 3258 (1997). [2] D. Campo and R. Parentani, Phys. Rev. D 74, 025001 (2006). [3] S. Robertson, F. Michel, and R. Parentani, Phys. Rev. D 95, 065020 (2017). [4] J.-C. Jaskula et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 220401 (2012).