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arXiv:2010.11214 · SciPost Physics

Josephson oscillations in split one-dimensional Bose gases

Yuri Daniel van Nieuwkerk, Jörg Schmiedmayer, Fabian H. L. Essler

Published Apr 26, 2021• 23 citations
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Abstract

We consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of a weakly interacting Bose gas tightly confined to a highly elongated double well potential. We use a self-consistent time-dependent Hartree--Fock approximation in combination with a projection of the full three-dimensional theory to several coupled one-dimensional channels. This allows us to model the time-dependent splitting and phase imprinting of a gas initially confined to a single quasi one-dimensional potential well and obtain a microscopic description of the ensuing damped Josephson oscillations.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.10.4.090

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We consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of a weakly interacting Bose gas tightly confined to a highly elongated double well potential. We use a self-consistent time-dependent Hartree--Fock approximation in combination with a projection of the full three-dimensional theory to several coupled one-dimensional channels. This allows us to model the time-dependent splitting and phase imprinting of a gas initially confined to a single quasi one-dimensional potential well and obtain a microscopic description of the ensuing damped Josephson oscillations.
We present an experimental study on the nonequilibrium tunnel dynamics of two coupled one-dimensional Bose-Einstein quasicondensates deep in the Josephson regime. Josephson oscillations are initiated by splitting a single one-dimensional condensate and imprinting a relative phase between the superfluids. Regardless of the initial state and experimental parameters, the dynamics of the relative phase and atom number imbalance shows a relaxation to a phase-locked steady state. The latter is characterized by a high phase coherence and reduced fluctuations with respect to the initial state. We propose an empirical model based on the analogy with the anharmonic oscillator to describe the effect of various experimental parameters. A microscopic theory compatible with our observations is still missing.
Understanding how coherent quantum dynamics give way to correlation-dominated behavior in low-dimensional systems remains a central challenge in quantum many-body physics. Here, we investigate a one-dimensional Bose-Josephson junction confined in a box trap using the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB). By varying the interaction strength and initial population imbalance, we identify distinct dynamical regimes governed by the competition between coherence and correlation-induced fragmentation. Weak interactions support coherent Josephson oscillations, whereas increasing imbalance leads to damping. At intermediate interaction strength, varying only the initial imbalance induces a crossover from nearly pure coherent oscillations to many-body dephasing with collapse-and-revival dynamics, and ultimately to equilibration accompanied by strong fragmentation and the saturation of many-body observables. In the strongly interacting regime, the system enters a dynamical freezing regime characterized by pronounced fragmentation, well-separated particle-resolved density peaks, and strongly suppressed tunneling. A systematic comparison with the Bose-Hubbard model reveals excellent agreement in the weakly interacting regime, while progressively larger deviations emerge as higher-orbital occupations beyond the two-mode approximation become significant. These results provide a unified picture of the emergence and competition of coherence, many-body dephasing, equilibration, and dynamical freezing, while delineating the regime of validity of the Bose-Hubbard description.
We study Josephson oscillations of two strongly correlated one-dimensional bosonic clouds separated by a localized barrier. Using a quantum-Langevin approach and the exact Tonks-Girardeau solution in the impenetrable-boson limit, we determine the dynamical evolution of the particle-number imbalance, displaying an effective damping of the Josephson oscillations which depends on barrier height, interaction strength and temperature. We show that the damping originates from the quantum and thermal fluctuations intrinsically present in the strongly correlated gas. Thanks to the density-phase duality of the model, the same results apply to particle-current oscillations in a one-dimensional ring where a weak barrier couples different angular momentum states. In the latter case, depending on interaction strength and temperature, we identify various dynamical regimes where the current oscillates, is self-trapped or decays with time and involve phase slips of thermal or quantum nature. We finally link the current oscillations in the large barrier limit to quantum shock waves.
We study Josephson oscillations of two strongly correlated one-dimensional bosonic clouds separated by a localized barrier. Using a quantum-Langevin approach and the exact Tonks-Girardeau solution in the impenetrable-boson limit, we determine the dynamical evolution of the particle-number imbalance, displaying an effective damping of the Josephson oscillations which depends on barrier height, interaction strength, and temperature. We show that the damping originates from the quantum and thermal fluctuations intrinsically present in the strongly correlated gas. Because of the density-phase duality of the model, the same results apply to particle-current oscillations in a one-dimensional ring where a weak barrier couples different angular momentum states.
This thesis is comprised of four separate parts: in the first we calculate the second and third virial coefficients of 3He and 4He at low temperatures with an empirical interatomic potential by Janzen and Aziz and using the Path Integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) technique. We show that, for the calculation of the second coefficient, the method is successful whereas for the third the particular implementation that we chose (free particle sampling) is not sufficient to produce reliable results at low temperatures. In the second part we consider the Josephson Effect between two spatially separated Bose-Einstein condensates of atoms each of which can be in two hyperfine states. We derive simple equations of motion for this system closely analogous to the Bloch equations. We also map the dynamics of the system onto those of a classical particle in a well. We find novel density and spin modes of oscillation and new stable equilibrium points of the motion. Finally we analyze the oscillation modes in the spin-1 (F = 1) case. In the third part of the thesis we propose a powerful method to study the time evolution of Bose condensed gases perturbed from an initial thermal equilibrium, based on the Wigner representation of the N-body density operator. We show how to generate an ensemble of random classical fields sampling the initial Wigner distribution in the number conserving Bogoliubov approximation. The fields are then evolved with the time dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We illustrate the method with the damping of a collective excitation of a one dimensional Bose gas. The fourth part deals with inhomogeneous superconductivity in the presence of magnetic fields that couple only to the spin and not to the orbital motion. They induce a splitting of the Fermi surfaces of up and down spins. We start by considering a one dimensional system and explicitly write down the wavefunction that pairs states with unequal energies due to the splitting. Next we consider an extension to three dimensions and work out explicitly certain aspects of the crossover from one to two dimensions. We then discuss the relationship of this state with those of Fulde, Ferrell, Larkin and Ovchinnikov. Finally, we consider an extension to the case of a paired state which has a gap with a spherically symmetric spatial dependence.