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Coherence and many-body effects in the transport of Bose–Einstein condensates

Julien Dujardin

Published Oct 1, 2015• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This thesis presents investigations on the interplay of coherence and many-body effects in the quasi one-dimensional transport of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) through scattering potentials. Such configurations can be realized with guided atom lasers that provide a coherent atomic beam. An exact theoretical description of the dynamics is out of reach due to the presence atom-atom interactions. Different levels of approximations are nevertheless possible with their strengths and weaknesses. The mean-field approximation, where the dynamics of the BEC is governed by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, is most commonly used in the field of ultracold atoms. In this thesis the truncated Wigner method is used to go beyond the standard Gross-Pitaevskii description. This method is adapted in order to study the scattering of Bose-Einstein condensates in one-dimensional waveguides where atom-atom interactions and external potentials are nonvanishing only in a finite region of space. In this case, the truncated Wigner method is combined with the smooth exterior complex scaling method and incorporates quantum noise that originate from the vacuum fluctuations in the waveguide. Inelastic scattering is shown to play a major role in the resonant transport of BEC through a symmetric double potential barrier effectively forming an atomic quantum dot. Indeed, fully resonant transmission is prohibited and incoherent atoms as well as collective oscillations are detected in the transmitted beam. It is also shown that inelastic scattering destroys Anderson localization in the case of transport through disordered potentials. The classical (incoherent) ohmic transmission is recovered for finite atom-atom interactions. The validity of the truncated Wigner method is then assessed using the semiclassical van Vleck-Gutzwiller propagator in the Fock space of the many-body system. It is shown that the truncated Wigner method corresponds to the so-called diagonal approximation, and it is possible to identify the leading correction to the truncated Wigner results, which is provided by the so-called coherent backscattering (CBS) contribution. Coherent basckattering in Fock space is a genuine quantum many-body effect that lies beyond the reach of any mean-field approach. For the case of closed Bose-Hubbard models, the relevance of CBS is confirmed by numerically comparing the (classical) truncated Wigner evolution probabilities to the exact quantum probabilities in Bose-Hubbard models: While a CBS-induced enhancement of the return probability to the initial state is clearly seen in the exact quantum simulations of the bosonic many-body system, this enhancement is absent in the classical calculations. The magnitude and dependence of the CBS contribution on gauge fields, which break time-reversal invariance, is numerically confirmed. For the case of disordered open systems, it can be shown that this contribution as well as next-to leading order contributions vanish thereby confirming the validity of the truncated Wigner method.

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This thesis presents investigations on the interplay of coherence and many-body effects in the quasi one-dimensional transport of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) through scattering potentials. Such configurations can be realized with guided atom lasers that provide a coherent atomic beam. An exact theoretical description of the dynamics is out of reach due to the presence atom-atom interactions. Different levels of approximations are nevertheless possible with their strengths and weaknesses. The mean-field approximation, where the dynamics of the BEC is governed by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, is most commonly used in the field of ultracold atoms. In this thesis the truncated Wigner method is used to go beyond the standard Gross-Pitaevskii description. This method is adapted in order to study the scattering of Bose-Einstein condensates in one-dimensional waveguides where atom-atom interactions and external potentials are nonvanishing only in a finite region of space. In this case, the truncated Wigner method is combined with the smooth exterior complex scaling method and incorporates quantum noise that originate from the vacuum fluctuations in the waveguide. Inelastic scattering is shown to play a major role in the resonant transport of BEC through a symmetric double potential barrier effectively forming an atomic quantum dot. Indeed, fully resonant transmission is prohibited and incoherent atoms as well as collective oscillations are detected in the transmitted beam. It is also shown that inelastic scattering destroys Anderson localization in the case of transport through disordered potentials. The classical (incoherent) ohmic transmission is recovered for finite atom-atom interactions. The validity of the truncated Wigner method is then assessed using the semiclassical van Vleck-Gutzwiller propagator in the Fock space of the many-body system. It is shown that the truncated Wigner method corresponds to the so-called diagonal approximation, and it is possible to identify the leading correction to the truncated Wigner results, which is provided by the so-called coherent backscattering (CBS) contribution. Coherent basckattering in Fock space is a genuine quantum many-body effect that lies beyond the reach of any mean-field approach. For the case of closed Bose-Hubbard models, the relevance of CBS is confirmed by numerically comparing the (classical) truncated Wigner evolution probabilities to the exact quantum probabilities in Bose-Hubbard models: While a CBS-induced enhancement of the return probability to the initial state is clearly seen in the exact quantum simulations of the bosonic many-body system, this enhancement is absent in the classical calculations. The magnitude and dependence of the CBS contribution on gauge fields, which break time-reversal invariance, is numerically confirmed. For the case of disordered open systems, it can be shown that this contribution as well as next-to leading order contributions vanish thereby confirming the validity of the truncated Wigner method.
We study the transport of an interacting Bose--Einstein condensate through a 1D correlated disorder potential. We use for this purpose the truncated Wigner method, which is, as we show, corresponding to the diagonal approximation of a semiclassical van Vleck--Gutzwiller representation of this many-body transport process. We also argue that semiclassical corrections beyond this diagonal approximation are vanishing under disorder average, thus confirming the validity of the truncated Wigner method in this context. Numerical calculations show that, while for weak atom-atom interaction strengths Anderson localization is preserved with a slight modification of the localization length, for larger interaction strengths a crossover to a delocalized regime exists due to inelastic scattering. In this case, the transport is fully incoherent.
Quantum simulation with ultracold atoms gained a lot of traction recently by proposing a framework with a lot of flexibility, versatility and tunability to emulate diverse quantum ef- fects. It indeed provides the ideal playground to study many–body effects in a well–controlled environment and is particularly useful in the domain of quantum coherent transport of waves in random media. The purpose of this thesis is to study several configurations of coher- ent transport within random media with Bose–Einstein condensates and to investigate the interplay between coherence and interaction effects. In particular, we start by numerically studying Aharonov–Bohm oscillations in the transmission of particles across the eponymous rings in a 1D configuration. When exposed to a suitably chosen disorder potential, those rings yield oscillations with double frequency, which are routinely encountered in solid–state physics where they are referred to as Al’tshuler–Aronov–Spivak oscillations, similar in essence to coherent backscattering and weak localisation. We then study the behaviour of those os- cillations in the presence of interaction within Aharonov–Bohm rings and find that in the mean–field regime, they are inverted for finite interaction. Truncated Wigner simulations are then carried out in the same scenario and indicate that the inversion should be observ- able for realistic atomic and experimental parameters with 39 K atoms, although dephasing of the oscillations is observed at strong interaction owing to interaction–induced inelastic scattering. A first–order nonlinear diagrammatic theory is then presented and benchmarks our numerical findings. The question of the inversion prevalence is then investigated in a 2D scenario, following state–of–the–art observations in the literature. It has indeed been nu- merically observed that coherent backscattering is inverted in the mean–field approximation for finite interaction strength. We numerically confirm this observation with our study and extend it beyond the mean–field approximation by applying the truncated Wigner method. These simulations show that the inversion prevails beyond the mean–field regime and should moreover be observable experimentally with 87 Rb atoms for realistic parameters, despite a partial dephasing. This dephasing however completely eclipses interference effects and washes out this signature of antilocalisation for stronger interaction.
We theoretically study the propagation of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate in a two-dimensional disorder potential, following the principle of an atom laser. The constructive interference between time-reversed scattering paths gives rise to coherent backscattering, which may be observed under the form of a sharp cone in the disorder-averaged angular backscattered current. As is found by the numerical integration of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, this coherent backscattering cone is inversed when a nonvanishing interaction strength is present, indicating a crossover from constructive to destructive interferences. Numerical simulations based on the truncated Wigner method allow one to go beyond the mean-field approach and show that dephasing renders this signature of antilocalization hidden behind a structureless and dominant incoherent contribution as the interaction strength is increased and the injected density decreased, in a regime of parameters far away from the mean-field limit. However, despite a partial dephasing, we observe that this weak antilocalization scenario prevails for finite interaction strengths, opening the way for an experimental observation with 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms.
We study the one-dimensional (1D) transport properties of an ultracold gas of Bose-Einstein condensed atoms through Aharonov-Bohm (AB) rings. Our system consists of a BoseEinstein condensate (BEC) that is outcoupled from a magnetic trap into a 1D waveguide which is made of two semiinfinite leads that join a ring geometry exposed to a magnetic flux φ. We specifically investigate the effects of a small atom-atom contact interaction strength on the AB oscillations. The main numerical tools that we use for this purpose are a mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) description and the truncated Wigner (tW) method. The latter allows for the description of incoherent transport and corresponds to a classical sampling of the evolution of the quantum bosonic many-body state through effective GP trajectories. We find that resonant transmission peaks move with an increasing interaction strength and can be suppressed for sufficiently strong interaction. We also observe that the coherent transmission blockade due to destructive interference at the AB flux φ = π is very robust with respect to the interaction strength. Aharonov-Bohm rings • Toroidal optical dipole trap Sheet beam Laguerre-Gaussian beam LG10 [1] Vlatt
We numerically study time-dependent quantum transport of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a two-dimensional correlated disorder potential. The scattering- and transport mean-free-path is numerically calculated and compared with a diagrammatic approach. Furthermore we introduce the phenomenon of coherent backscattering in the context of Bose-Einstein condensates. In the limit of a vanishing atom-atom interaction, a sharp cone in the angle-resolved density of the scattered matter wave is observed, arising from constructive interference between amplitudes propagating along reversed scattering paths. Weak interaction transforms this coherent backscattering peak into a pronounced dip, indicating destructive instead of constructive interference. This agrees with results obtained from a diagrammatic theory of weak localization in the presence of nonlinearity. For intermediate interaction strength we observe intrinsic time-dependent dynamic, which leads to a suppression of coherent backscattering.
We explore atom-laser-like transport processes of ultracold Bose-condensed atomic vapors in mesoscopic waveguide structures beyond the Gross-Pitaevskii mean-field theory. Based on a microscopic description of the transport process in the presence of a coherent source that models the outcoupling from a reservoir of perfectly Bose-Einstein condensed atoms, we derive a system of coupled quantum evolution equations that describe the dynamics of a dilute condensed Bose gas in the framework of the Hartree-Fock--Bogoliubov approximation. We apply this method to study the transport of dilute Bose gases through an atomic quantum dot and through waveguides with disorder. Our numerical simulations reveal that the onset of an explicitly time-dependent flow corresponds to the appearance of strong depletion of the condensate on the microscopic level and leads to a loss of global phase coherence.