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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Analytical results for the time-dependent current density distribution of expanding ultracold gases after a sudden change of the confining potential

R Boumaza, K. Bencheikh

Published Oct 13, 2017• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Using the so-called operator product expansion to lowest order, we extend the work in Campbell et al (2015 Phys. Rev. Lett 114 125302) by deriving a simple analytical expression for the long-time asymptotic one-body reduced density matrix during free expansion for a one-dimensional system of bosons with large atom number interacting through a repulsive delta potential initially confined by a potential well. This density matrix allows direct access to the momentum distribution and also to the mass current density. For initially confining power-law potentials we give explicit expressions, in the limits of very weak and very strong interaction, for the current density distributions during the free expansion. In the second part of the work we consider the expansion of ultracold gas from a confining harmonic trap to another harmonic trap with a different frequency. For the case of a quantum impenetrable gas of bosons (a Tonks–Girardeau gas) with a given atom number, we present an exact analytical expression for the mass current distribution (mass transport) after release from one harmonic trap to another harmonic trap. It is shown that, for a harmonically quenched Tonks–Girardeau gas, the current distribution is a suitable collective observable and under the weak quench regime, it exhibits oscillations at the same frequencies as those recently predicted for the peak momentum distribution in the breathing mode. The analysis is extended to other possible quenched systems.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/aa9363

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arXiv:1608.08566•Physical Review A•Dec 23, 2016•24 citations
Abstract Using the so-called operator product expansion to lowest order, we extend the work in Campbell et al (2015 Phys. Rev. Lett 114 125302) by deriving a simple analytical expression for the long-time asymptotic one-body reduced density matrix during free expansion for a one-dimensional system of bosons with large atom number interacting through a repulsive delta potential initially confined by a potential well. This density matrix allows direct access to the momentum distribution and also to the mass current density. For initially confining power-law potentials we give explicit expressions, in the limits of very weak and very strong interaction, for the current density distributions during the free expansion. In the second part of the work we consider the expansion of ultracold gas from a confining harmonic trap to another harmonic trap with a different frequency. For the case of a quantum impenetrable gas of bosons (a Tonks–Girardeau gas) with a given atom number, we present an exact analytical expression for the mass current distribution (mass transport) after release from one harmonic trap to another harmonic trap. It is shown that, for a harmonically quenched Tonks–Girardeau gas, the current distribution is a suitable collective observable and under the weak quench regime, it exhibits oscillations at the same frequencies as those recently predicted for the peak momentum distribution in the breathing mode. The analysis is extended to other possible quenched systems.
Free expansion following the removal of axial confinement represents a fundamental nonequilibrium scenario in the study of many-body ultracold gases. Using the stationary phase approximation, we analytically demonstrate that for all one-dimensional spinor gases with repulsive contact interactions, whether bosonic or fermionic, the asymptotic density and momentum distribution can be directly determined from the quasimomentum distribution (Bethe rapidities) of the trapped gas. We efficiently obtain the quasimomentum distribution numerically by solving the integral equations that characterize the ground state of the integrable system within the local density approximation. Additionally, we derive analytical solutions for both weakly and strongly interacting regimes. Unlike in bosonic gases, where rapidity distributions and density profiles vary significantly across interaction regimes, fermionic gases maintain similar profiles in both weakly and strongly interacting limits. Notably, the gas expands self-similarly only when released from a harmonic trap. For other power-law trapping potentials, the asymptotic density profile is strongly influenced by the initial confinement geometry. Our results extend readily to Bose-Fermi mixtures and finite temperatures.
In one-dimensional (1D) quantum gases, the momentum distribution (MD) of the atoms is a standard experimental observable, routinely measured in various experimental setups. The MD is sensitive to correlations, and it is notoriously hard to compute theoretically for large numbers of atoms NNN, which often prevents direct comparison with experimental data. Here we report significant progress on this problem for the 1D Tonks-Girardeau (TG) gas in the asymptotic limit of large NNN, at zero temperature and driven out of equilibrium by a quench of the confining potential. We find an exact analytical formula for the one-particle density matrix $\ensuremath{\langle}{\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}(x)\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Psi}}}({x}^{\ensuremath{'}})\ensuremath{\rangle}$ of the out-of-equilibrium TG gas in the $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit, valid on distances $|x\ensuremath{-}{x}^{\ensuremath{'}}|$ much larger than the interparticle distance. By comparing with time-dependent Bose-Fermi mapping numerics, we demonstrate that our analytical formula can be used to compute the out-of-equilibrium MD with great accuracy for a wide range of momenta (except in the tails of the distribution at very large momenta). For a quench from a double-well potential to a single harmonic well, which mimics a ``quantum Newton cradle'' setup, our method predicts the periodic formation of peculiar, multiply peaked, momentum distributions.
We analyze free expansion of a trapped one-dimensional Bose gas after a sudden release from the confining trap potential. By using the stationary phase and local density approximations, we show that the long-time asymptotic density profile and the momentum distribution of the gas are determined by the initial distribution of Bethe rapidities (quasimomenta) and hence can be obtained from the solutions to the Lieb-Liniger equations in the thermodynamic limit. For expansion from a harmonic trap, and in the limits of very weak and very strong interactions, we recover the self-similar scaling solutions known from the hydrodynamic approach. For all other power-law traps and arbitrary interaction strengths, the expansion is not self-similar and shows strong dependence of the density profile evolution on the trap anharmonicity. We also characterize dynamical fermionization of the expanding cloud in terms of correlation functions describing phase and density fluctuations.
After release from the trap the momentum distribution of an impenetrable gas asymptotically approaches that of a spinless noninteracting Fermi gas in the initial trap. This phenomenon is called dynamical fermionization and, very recently, has been experimentally confirmed in the case of the Lieb-Liniger model in the Tonks-Girardeau regime. We prove analytically and confirm numerically that following the removal of axial confinement the strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture exhibits dynamical fermionization and the asymptotical momentum distribution of each component has the same shape as its density profile at t=0t=0t=0. Under a sudden change of the trap frequency to a new nonzero value the dynamics of both fermionic and bosonic momentum distributions presents characteristics which are similar to the case of single component bosons experiencing a similar quench. Our results are derived using a product representation for the correlation functions which, in addition to analytical considerations, can be implemented numerically very easily with complexity which scales polynomially in the number of particles.
We analyze free expansion of a trapped one-dimensional Bose gas after a sudden release from the confining trap potential. By using the stationary phase and local density approximations, we show that the long-time asymptotic density profile and the momentum distribution of the gas are determined by the initial distribution of Bethe rapidities (quasimomenta) and hence can be obtained from the solutions to the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations. For expansion from a harmonic trap, and in the limits of very weak and very strong interactions, we recover the known scaling solutions of the hydrodynamic approach corresponding to self-similar expansion. For all other power-law traps and arbitrary interaction strengths, the expansion is not self-similar and shows strong dependence on the trap anharmonicity of the shape variation of the density profile during evolution. We also characterize dynamical fermionization of an expanding cloud in terms of its first- and second-order coherences describing phase and density fluctuations.
We study the expansion of an interacting atomic system at zero temperature, following its release from an isotropic three-dimensional harmonic trap and calculate the time dependence of its density and momentum distribution, with special focus on the behavior of the contact parameter. We consider different quantum systems, including the unitary Fermi gas of infinite scattering length, the weakly interacting Bose gas, and two interacting particles with highly asymmetric mass imbalance. In all cases analytic results can be obtained, which show that the initial value of the contact, fixing the 1/k41/{k}^{4}1/k4 tail of the momentum distribution, disappears for large expansion times. Our results raise the problem of understanding the recent experiment of R. Chang et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 235303 (2016)] carried out on a weakly interacting Bose gas of metastable 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He atoms, where a 1/r41/{r}^{4}1/r4 tail in the density distribution was observed after a large expansion time, implying the existence of the 1/k41/{k}^{4}1/k4 tail in the asymptotic momentum distribution.