A fundamental question in many-body physics is how closed quantum systems reach equilibrium. We address this question experimentally and theoretically in an ultracold large-spin Fermi gas where we find a complex interplay between internal and motional degrees of freedom. The fermions are initially prepared far from equilibrium with only a few spin states occupied. The subsequent dynamics leading to redistribution among all spin states is observed experimentally and simulated theoretically using a kinetic Boltzmann equation with full spin coherence. The latter is derived microscopically and provides good agreement with experimental data without any free parameters. We identify several collisional processes, which occur on different time scales. By varying density and magnetic field, we control the relaxation dynamics and are able to continuously tune the character of a subset of spin states from an open to a closed system.
A fundamental question in many-body physics is how closed quantum systems reach equilibrium. We address this question experimentally and theoretically in an ultracold large-spin Fermi gas where we find a complex interplay between internal and motional degrees of freedom. The fermions are initially prepared far from equilibrium with only a few spin states occupied. The subsequent dynamics leading to redistribution among all spin states is observed experimentally and simulated theoretically using a kinetic Boltzmann equation with full spin coherence. The latter is derived microscopically and provides good agreement with experimental data without any free parameters. We identify several collisional processes, which occur on different time scales. By varying density and magnetic field, we control the relaxation dynamics and are able to continuously tune the character of a subset of spin states from an open to a closed system.
A fundamental question in many-body physics is how closed quantum systems reach equilibrium.We address this question experimentally and theoretically in an ultracold large-spin Fermi gas where we find a complex interplay between internal and motional degrees of freedom.The fermions are initially prepared far from equilibrium with only a few spin states occupied.The subsequent dynamics leading to redistribution among all spin states is observed experimentally and simulated theoretically using a kinetic Boltzmann equation with full spin coherence.The latter is derived microscopically and provides good agreement with experimental data without any free parameters.We identify several collisional processes that occur on different time scales.By varying density and magnetic field, we control the relaxation dynamics and are able to continuously tune the character of a subset of spin states from an open to a closed system.
In this work, we study the dynamics of an atomic harmonically trapped large-spin Fermi gas in one dimension (1D). We investigate the interplay of different collision processes. Coherent spin oscillations, driven by spin-changing forward scattering are captured by a mean-field description and scale linearly with density regardless of the dimension of the system. Conversely, "incoherent" collision processes which e.g. lead to the damping of spin oscillations, behave differently. In the usual three-dimensional (3D) case, the rate of incoherent processes increases faster with density than mean-field effects, but in 1D it increases slower. This means, that in the 1D case, incoherent collisions become more important at lower densities. We study these effects by deriving and integrating a quantum Boltzmann equation. We demonstrate that the well known fact that in one dimension, interaction-induced correlations become more dominant at low densities can be observed in far-from-equilibrium spin dynamics.
How do isolated quantum systems approach an equilibrium state? We experimentally and theoretically address this question for a prototypical spin system formed by ultracold atoms prepared in two Rydberg states with different orbital angular momenta. By coupling these states with a resonant microwave driving, we realize a dipolar XY spin-1/2 model in an external field. Starting from a spin-polarized state, we suddenly switch on the external field and monitor the subsequent many-body dynamics. Our key observation is density dependent relaxation of the total magnetization much faster than typical decoherence rates. To determine the processes governing this relaxation, we employ different theoretical approaches that treat quantum effects on initial conditions and dynamical laws separately. This allows us to identify an intrinsically quantum component to the relaxation attributed to primordial quantum fluctuations.
Strongly correlated quantum systems display a myriad of complex, fascinating behaviour. The competition between charge, spin, orbital, or lattice degrees of freedom and their respective energy scales gives rise to rich and complex emergent phases. More recently, the non-equilibrium properties of correlated quantum many-body systems have come into the focus of active research, with remarkable advances. While the advent of tensor network based simulations on the theoretical side has allowed access to the full time-evolution of the quantum state as it traverses the Hilbert space, the experimental progress in the ultracold atom community has allowed physicists to enter the paradigm of analog quantum simulation. Their tunability and isolation from the environment makes them ideal platforms to emulate and study open problems in condensed matter physics and go beyond the simulational capabilities of state of the art classical simulations. In this thesis, we explore the dynamics of correlated Fermi gases. We develop and present different facets of applicability of radiofrequency modulation techniques to drive the system out of equilibrium. We begin by considering a homogeneous, three-dimensional Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover and develop an off-resonant radiofrequency transfer scheme to excite the Higgs mode of the superfluid. In a subsequent study we investigate the tunability of the coherence between Cooper pairs by tuning the duration of interaction ramps of the internal interaction strength. These works highlight the possibility to externally tune and stabilise complex quantum many-body states away from equilibrium. Using quasi-exact matrix product state simulations, we study the response of an attractively interacting, one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model to weak radiofrequency perturbations. We reveal the emergence of two distinct dynamical regimes in the time evolution and are able to relate it back to the underlying excitation spectrum of the system. Finally, we explore the possibility to perform quantum quenches through radiofrequency π-pulses, achieving nearly complete population transfer between different interacting fermionic states. We reveal non-trivial dynamical effects in the pair correlation of the final state, as well as the excitation of a collective trap mode of the system.
The interplay between spin and motional degrees of freedom in interacting electron systems has been a long-standing research topic in condensed matter physics. Interactions can modify the behavior of individual electrons and give rise to emergent collective phenomena such as superconductivity and colossal magnetoresistance. Theoretical understanding of non-equilibrium dynamics in interacting fermionic matter is limited, however, and many open questions remain. Ultracold atomic Fermi gases, with precisely controllable parameters, offer an outstanding opportunity to investigate the emergence of collective behavior in out-of-equilibrium settings. In this thesis we will describe how an optical lattice clock operated with neutral Fermionic atoms can be turned into a quantum simulator of charged particles in a strong magnetic field. We will then discuss the counterintuitive notion that weak interactions in a Fermi gas can lead to large scale collective behavior and global correlations. These ideas are being tested experimentally at JILA and the University of Toronto. We also investigate in detail the so-called spin model approximation which is used extensively throughout this thesis.
Abstract Predicting the dynamics of quantum systems far from equilibrium represents one of the most challenging problems in theoretical many-body physics1, 2. While the evolution of a many-body system is in general intractable in all its details, relevant observables can become insensitive to microscopic system parameters and initial conditions. This is the basis of the phenomenon of universality. Far from equilibrium, universality is identified through the scaling of the spatio-temporal evolution of the system, captured by universal exponents and functions. Theoretically, this has been studied in examples as different as the reheating process in inflationary Universe cosmology3, 4, the dynamics of nuclear collision experiments described by quantum chromodynamics5, 6, and the post-quench dynamics in dilute quantum gases in non-relativistic quantum field theory7–11. However, an experimental demonstration of such scaling evolution in space and time in a quantum many-body system has been lacking. Here we observe the emergence of universal dynamics by evaluating spatially resolved spin correlations in a quasi-one-dimensional spinor Bose–Einstein condensate12–16. For long evolution times we extract the scaling properties from the spatial correlations of the spin excitations. From this we find the dynamics to be governed by an emergent conserved quantity and the transport of spin excitations towards low momentum scales. Our results establish an important class of non-stationary systems whose dynamics is encoded in time-independent scaling exponents and functions, signalling the existence of non-thermal fixed points10, 17, 18. We confirm that the non-thermal scaling phenomenon involves no fine-tuning of parameters, by preparing different initial conditions and observing the same scaling behaviour. Our analogue quantum simulation approach provides the basis with which to reveal the underlying mechanisms and characteristics of non-thermal universality classes. One may use this universality to learn, from experiments with ultracold gases, about fundamental aspects of dynamics studied in cosmology and quantum chromodynamics.