Fluctuation damping of isolated, oscillating Bose-Einstein condensates
Tim Lappe, Anna Posazhennikova, Johann Kroha
Experiments on the nonequilibrium dynamics of an isolated Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a magnetic double-well trap exhibit a puzzling divergence: While some show dissipation-free Josephson oscillations, others find strong damping. Such damping in isolated BECs cannot be understood on the level of the coherent Gross-Pitaevskii dynamics. Using the Keldysh functional-integral formalism, we describe the time-dependent system dynamics by means of a multimode BEC coupled to fluctuations (single-particle excitations) beyond the Gross-Pitaevskii saddle point. We find that the Josephson oscillations excite an excess of fluctuations when the effective Josephson frequency ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{J}$ is in resonance with the effective fluctuation energy ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}}_{m}$, where both ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{J}$ and ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}}_{m}$ are strongly renormalized with respect to their noninteracting values. By evaluating and using the model parameters for the respective experiments, we describe quantitatively the presence or absence of damping.
arXiv:1806.00376•Physical Review A•Aug 24, 2018•13 citations