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Science

Making a quantum pump

Jelena Stajic

Published Jan 14, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum Gases Most nonequilibrium, many-particle systems eventually reach a thermal state. However, some one-dimensional quantum systems do not thermalize, although they may settle into a long-term equilibrium state. Kao et al. studied such a system consisting of dipolar dysprosium atoms confined in an optical potential shaped like a two-dimensional array of elongated tubes. The authors cycled the contact interaction between the atoms in a prescribed way, creating increasingly excited nonthermal quantum many-body states. Science , this issue p. [296][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abb4928

DOI
10.1126/science.371.6526.248-g

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Quantum Gases
Most nonequilibrium, many-particle systems eventually reach a thermal state. However, some one-dimensional quantum systems do not thermalize, although they may settle into a long-term equilibrium state. Kao et al. studied such a system consisting of dipolar dysprosium atoms confined in an optical potential shaped like a two-dimensional array of elongated tubes. The authors cycled the contact interaction between the atoms in a prescribed way, creating increasingly excited nonthermal quantum many-body states.
Science , this issue p. 296
Quantum Gases Quantum statistics dictates the behavior of identical particles in the quantum world: Bosons like to congregate, whereas fermions avoid one another. However, strong interactions can cause a string of bosons to behave like fermions. This so-called fermionization phenomenon has been studied in equilibrium. Wilson et al. instead focused on dynamical fermionization in a nonequilibrium system consisting of tubes of strongly interacting bosonic rubidium atoms. After letting the tubes expand in the axial direction, the researchers monitored the momentum distribution of the atoms and found that it evolved from bosonic-like to fermionic-like. Science , this issue p. [1461][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaz0242
The dynamics and thermalization of classical systems have been extensively studied in the past. However, the corresponding quantum phenomena remain, to a large extent, uncharted territory. Recent experiments with ultracold quantum gases have at last allowed exploration of the coherent dynamics of isolated quantum systems, as well as observation of non-equilibrium phenomena that challenge our current understanding of the dynamics of quantum many-body systems. These experiments have also posed many new questions. How can we control the dynamics to engineer new states of matter? Given that quantum dynamics is unitary, under which conditions can we expect observables of the system to reach equilibrium values that can be predicted by conventional statistical mechanics? And, how do the observables dynamically approach their statistical equilibrium values? Could the approach to equilibrium be hampered if the system is trapped in long-lived metastable states characterized, for example, by a certain distribution of topological defects? How does the dynamics depend on the way the system is perturbed, such as changing, as a function of time and at a given rate, a parameter across a quantum critical point? What if, conversely, after relaxing to a steady state, the observables cannot be described by the standard equilibrium ensembles of statistical mechanics? How would they depend on the initial conditions in addition to the other properties of the system, such as the existence of conserved quantities? The search for answers to questions like these is fundamental to a new research field that is only beginning to be explored, and to which researchers with different backgrounds, such as nuclear, atomic, and condensed-matter physics, as well as quantum optics, can make, and are making, important contributions. This body of knowledge has an immediate application to experiments in the field of ultracold atomic gases, but can also fundamentally change the way we approach and understand many-body quantum systems. This focus issue of New Journal Physics brings together both experimentalists and theoreticians working on these problems to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of the field. Focus on Dynamics and Thermalization in Isolated Quantum Many-Body Systems Contents Spin squeezing of high-spin, spatially extended quantum fields Jay D Sau, Sabrina R Leslie, Marvin L Cohen and Dan M Stamper-Kurn Thermodynamic entropy of a many-body energy eigenstate J M Deutsch Ground states and dynamics of population-imbalanced Fermi condensates in one dimension Masaki Tezuka and Masahito Ueda Relaxation dynamics in the gapped XXZ spin-1/2 chain Jorn Mossel and Jean-Sébastien Caux Canonical thermalization Peter Reimann Minimally entangled typical thermal state algorithms E M Stoudenmire and Steven R White Manipulation of the dynamics of many-body systems via quantum control methods Julie Dinerman and Lea F Santos Multimode analysis of non-classical correlations in double-well Bose–Einstein condensates Andrew J Ferris and Matthew J Davis Thermalization in a quasi-one-dimensional ultracold bosonic gas I E Mazets and J Schmiedmayer Two simple systems with cold atoms: quantum chaos tests and non-equilibrium dynamics Cavan Stone, Yassine Ait El Aoud, Vladimir A Yurovsky and Maxim Olshanii On the speed of fluctuations around thermodynamic equilibrium Noah Linden, Sandu Popescu, Anthony J Short and Andreas Winter A quantum central limit theorem for non-equilibrium systems: exact local relaxation of correlated states M Cramer and J Eisert Quantum quench dynamics of the sine-Gordon model in some solvable limits A Iucci and M A Cazalilla Nonequilibrium quantum dynamics of atomic dark solitons A D Martin and J Ruostekoski Quantum quenches in the anisotropic spin-1⁄2 Heisenberg chain: different approaches to many-body dynamics far from equilibrium Peter Barmettler, Matthias Punk, Vladimir Gritsev, Eugene Demler and Ehud Altman Crossover from adiabatic to sudden interaction quenches in the Hubbard model: prethermalization and non-equilibrium dynamics Michael Moeckel and Stefan Kehrein Quantum quenches in integrable field theories Davide Fioretto and Giuseppe Mussardo Dynamical delocalization of Majorana edge states by sweeping across a quantum critical point A Bermudez, L Amico and M A Martin-Delgado Thermometry with spin-dependent lattices D McKay and B DeMarco Near-adiabatic parameter changes in correlated systems: influence of the ramp protocol on the excitation energy Martin Eckstein and Marcus Kollar Sudden change of the thermal contact between two quantum systems J Restrepo and S Camalet Reflection of a Lieb–Liniger wave packet from the hard-wall potential D Jukić and H Buljan Probing interaction-induced ferromagnetism in optical superlattices J von Stecher, E Demler, M D Lukin and A M Rey Sudden interaction quench in the quantum sine-Gordon model Javier Sabio and Stefan Kehrein Dynamics of an inhomogeneous quantum phase transition Jacek Dziarmaga and Marek M Rams
Quantum Control Large-scale systems comprising one-dimensional chains and two-dimensional arrays of excited atoms held in a programmable optical lattice are a powerful platform with which to simulate emergent phenomena. Bluvstein et al. built an array of up to 200 Rydberg atoms and subjected the system to periodic excitation. Under such driven excitation, they found that the array of atoms stabilized, freezing periodically into what looked like time crystals. Understanding and controlling the dynamic interactions in quantum many-body systems lies at the heart of contemporary condensed matter physics and the exotic phenomena that can occur. Science , this issue p. [1355][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abg2530
Quantum Simulation Ultracold atomic gases are very good at simulating electrons in solids but lack one essential party trick: charge. Their neutrality makes it challenging to simulate phenomena such as the quantum Hall effect, which, in the case of charged electrons, is easily induced by an external magnetic field. One way to produce a similar effect in a neutral system is to rotate it, but achieving the equivalent of strong magnetic fields remains difficult. Fletcher et al. rotated a gas of trapped sodium atoms, reaching a state in which the gas could be described by a single lowest Landau-level wave-function. The system is expected to be a testbed for studying the behavior of strongly interacting many-body states. Science , aba7202, this issue p. [1318][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aba7202
Long-lived excited states of interacting quantum systems that retain quantum correlations and evade thermalization are of great fundamental interest. We create nonthermal states in a bosonic one-dimensional (1D) quantum gas of dysprosium by stabilizing a super-Tonks-Girardeau gas against collapse and thermalization with repulsive long-range dipolar interactions. Stiffness and energy-per-particle measurements show that the system is dynamically stable regardless of contact interaction strength. This enables us to cycle contact interactions from weakly to strongly repulsive, then strongly attractive, and finally weakly attractive. We show that this cycle is an energy-space topological pump (caused by a quantum holonomy). Iterating this cycle offers an unexplored topological pumping method to create a hierarchy of increasingly excited prethermal states.
Non-equilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems play an important role in many areas of physics. However, a general answer to the question of how these systems relax is still lacking. We experimentally study the dynamics of ultracold one-dimensional (1D) Bose gases. This reveals the existence of a quasi-steady prethermalized state which differs significantly from the thermal equilibrium of the system. Our results demonstrate that the dynamics of non-equilibrium quantum many-body systems is a far richer process than has been assumed in the past.