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arXiv:2007.05252 · Physical Review Research

Universal shock-wave propagation in one-dimensional Bose fluids

Romain Dubessy, Juan Polo, Hélène Perrin, Anna Minguzzi, Maxim Olshanii

Published Jan 29, 2021• 17 citations
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Abstract

We propose a protocol for creating moving, robust dispersive shock waves in interacting one-dimensional Bose fluids.The fluid is prepared in a moving state by phase imprinting and sent against the walls of a box trap.We demonstrate that the thus formed shock wave oscillates for several periods and is robust against thermal fluctuations.We show that this large amplitude dynamics is universal across the whole spectrum of the interatomic interaction strength, from weak to strong interactions, and it is fully controlled by the sound velocity inside the fluid.Our work provides a generalization of the dispersive-shock-wave paradigm to the many-body regime.The shock waves we propose are within reach for ultracold atom experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.3.013098

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We propose a protocol for creating moving, robust dispersive shock waves in interacting one-dimensional Bose fluids.The fluid is prepared in a moving state by phase imprinting and sent against the walls of a box trap.We demonstrate that the thus formed shock wave oscillates for several periods and is robust against thermal fluctuations.We show that this large amplitude dynamics is universal across the whole spectrum of the interatomic interaction strength, from weak to strong interactions, and it is fully controlled by the sound velocity inside the fluid.Our work provides a generalization of the dispersive-shock-wave paradigm to the many-body regime.The shock waves we propose are within reach for ultracold atom experiments.
We propose a protocol for creating moving, robust dispersive shock waves in interacting one-dimensional Bose fluids. The fluid is prepared in a moving state by phase imprinting and sent against the walls of a box trap. We demonstrate that the thus formed shock wave oscillates for several periods and is robust against thermal fluctuations. We show that this large amplitude dynamics is universal across the whole spectrum of the interatomic interaction strength, from weak to strong interactions, and it is fully controlled by the sound velocity inside the fluid. Our work provides a generalization of the dispersive-shock-wave paradigm to the many-body regime. The shock waves we propose are within reach for ultracold atom experiments.6 MoreReceived 8 July 2020Accepted 5 January 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.013098Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasBose gasesCold atoms & matter wavesPhysical Systems1-dimensional systemsBose-Einstein condensatesNonlinear DynamicsAtomic, Molecular & Optical
We implement a moving boundary condition in a 1D quantum liquid to study nonlinear wave breaking and its regularization by dispersion. Programmable optical potentials allow us to compress a weakly interacting ultra-cold Bose gas trapped on an atomchip at tunable speeds of up to three times the speed of sound and we subsequently measure the quasi-in-situ density distribution to extract the shock wave edge dynamics. We resolve both leading and trailing edge velocities and observe a shock wave width that increases linearly in time, which are distinguishing features of dispersive shock waves, consistent with asymptotic predictions using Whitham's method. Quantitative agreement is found with finite temperature non-polynomial Schrödinger equation simulations, taking into account the imaging process and the finite height of the piston potential. Our results constitute a controlled, quantitative test of dispersive shock dynamics in a 1D quantum fluid and demonstrate that the coarse-grained dispersive-shock phenomenology remains robust even as the microscopic dynamics depart from the strictly integrable 1D regime.
Shock waves are examples of the far-from-equilibrium behavior of matter; they are ubiquitous in nature, yet the underlying microscopic mechanisms behind their formation are not well understood. Here, we study the dynamics of dispersive quantum shock waves in a one-dimensional Bose gas, and show that the oscillatory train forming from a local density bump expanding into a uniform background is a result of quantum mechanical self-interference. The amplitude of oscillations, i.e., the interference contrast, decreases with the increase of both the temperature of the gas and the interaction strength due to the reduced phase coherence length. Furthermore, we show that vacuum and thermal fluctuations can significantly wash out the interference contrast, seen in the mean-field approaches, due to shot-to-shot fluctuations in the position of interference fringes around the mean.
We study the dynamics of one-dimensional bosons trapped in a box potential, in the presence of a barrier creating a tunable weak-link, thus realizing a one dimensional Bose Josephson junction. By varying the initial population imbalance and the barrier height we evidence different dynamical regimes. In particular we show that at large barriers a two mode model captures accurately the dynamics, while for low barriers the dynamics involves dispersive shock waves and solitons. We study a quench protocol that can be readily implemented in experiments and show that self-trapping resonances can occur. This phenomenon can be understood qualitatively within the two-mode model.
We study the dynamics of one-dimensional bosons trapped in a box potential in the presence of a barrier creating a tunable weak link, thus realizing a one-dimensional Bose-Josephson junction. By varying the initial population imbalance and the barrier height, we evidence different dynamical regimes. In particular, we show that at large barriers a two-mode model captures accurately the dynamics, while for low barriers the dynamics involves dispersive shock waves and solitons. We study a quench protocol that can be readily implemented in experiments and show that self-trapping resonances can occur. This phenomenon can be understood qualitatively within the two-mode model.
The frictionless motion of an object through a fluid medium is commonly viewed as a hallmark of superfluidity. According to Landau, kinematic constraints prohibit superfluid behavior in one-dimensional (1D) bosonic systems. Here, using ultracold atoms, we show how a microscopic impurity can propagate through a strongly interacting 1D Bose gas without any friction, at odds with conventional expectations. We inject the impurity with initial velocities ranging from the subsonic to supersonic regime, and subsequently track its dynamics. For supersonic initial velocities, we observe the formation of a shock wave and a remarkably fast relaxation to a stationary regime, on a time scale that increases with decreasing impurity velocity. After reaching the stationary state, the impurity continues its motion through the system with a finite velocity. Our findings demonstrate how quantum effects can conspire to eliminate dissipation of a microscopic object immersed in a quantum fluid, thereby bringing novel insights into the propagation of matter and information in the quantum realm.