Quantum Phase Slips of Trapped Superfluid Bose Gases in One Dimension

Ippei Danshita

Chiara D’Errico, Simona Scaffidi Abbate, Giovanni Carlo Modugno

Quantum phase slips (QPS) are the primary excitations in one-dimensional superfluids and superconductors at low temperatures. They have been well characterized in most condensed-matter systems, and signatures of their existence have been recently observed in superfluids based on quantum gases too. In this review, we briefly summarize the main results obtained on the investigation of phase slips from superconductors to quantum gases. In particular, we focus our attention on recent experimental results of the dissipation in one-dimensional Bose superfluids flowing along a shallow periodic potential, which show signatures of QPS.This article is part of the themed issue 'Breakdown of ergodicity in quantum systems: from solids to synthetic matter'.

Élliott H. Lieb, Robert Seiringer, Jakob Yngvason

Tobias Dornheim, Alexey V. Filinov, M. Bönitz

Ippei Danshita

We study superflow decay via quantum phase slips in trapped one-dimensional (1D) quantum gases through dipole oscillations induced by sudden displacement of the trapping potential. We find the relation between the damping rate of the dipole oscillation G and the phase-slip nucleation rate Γ as G∝Γ/v, where v is the flow velocity. This relation allows us to show that damping of 1D Bose gases in optical lattices, which has been extensively studied in experiment, is due to quantum phase slips. It is also found that the damping rate versus the flow velocity obeys the scaling formula for an impurity potential even in the absence of an explicit impurity. We suggest that the damping rate at a finite temperature exhibits a universal crossover behavior upon changing the flow velocity.

Chao Feng, Matthew J. Davis