In quantum mechanics, each particle is described by a complex valued wave function characterized by amplitude and phase. When many particles interact each other, cooperative phenomena give rise to a quantum many-body state with a specific quantum coherence. What is the interplay between particle's phase coherence and many-body quantum coherence? Over the years, such question has been object of profound analysis in quantum physics. Here, we demonstrate how state of the art quantum technology allows to explore the question operatively. To this end, we study the time-dependent interference formed by releasing an interacting degenerate Fermi-gas from a specific matter-wave circuit in an effective magnetic field. Particle phase coherence, indicated by the first-order correlator, and many-body quantum coherence, indicated by the noise correlator, are displayed as distinct features of the interferogram. Particle phase coherence produces spiral interference of the Fermi orbitals at intermediate times. Many-body quantum coherence emerges at long times. The coupling between particles coherence and many-body coherence is reflected in a specific dependence of the interference pattern on the effective magnetic field.
In quantum mechanics, each particle is described by a complex valued wave function characterized by amplitude and phase. When many particles interact each other, cooperative phenomena give rise to a quantum many-body state with a specific quantum coherence. What is the interplay between particle's phase coherence and many-body quantum coherence? Over the years, such question has been object of profound analysis in quantum physics. Here, we demonstrate how state of the art quantum technology allows to explore the question operatively. To this end, we study the time-dependent interference formed by releasing an interacting degenerate Fermi-gas from a specific matter-wave circuit in an effective magnetic field. Particle phase coherence, indicated by the first-order correlator, and many-body quantum coherence, indicated by the noise correlator, are displayed as distinct features of the interferogram. Particle phase coherence produces spiral interference of the Fermi orbitals at intermediate times. Many-body quantum coherence emerges at long times. The coupling between particles coherence and many-body coherence is reflected in a specific dependence of the interference pattern on the effective magnetic field.
Abstract In quantum mechanics, each particle is described by a complex valued wave-function characterized by amplitude and phase. When many particles interact each other, cooperative phenomena give rise to a quantum many-body state with a specific quantum coherence. What is the interplay between single-particle’s phase coherence and many-body quantum coherence? Over the years, such question has been object of profound analysis in quantum physics. Here, we demonstrate how the time-dependent interference formed by releasing an interacting degenerate Fermi gas from a specific matter-wave circuit in an effective magnetic field can tell apart the two notions. Single-particle phase coherence, indicated by the first-order correlator, and many-body quantum coherence, indicated by the density–density correlator, are displayed as distinct features of the interferogram. Single particle phase coherence produces spiral interference of the Fermi orbitals at intermediate times. Many-body quantum coherence emerges as long times interference. The interplay between single-particle coherence and many-body coherence is reflected in a stepwise dependence of the interference pattern on the effective magnetic field.
In quantum systems with a classical limit, advanced semiclassical methods provide the crucial link between phase-space structures, reflecting the distinction between chaotic, mixed or integrable classical dynamics, and the corresponding quantum properties. Well established techniques dealing with ergodic wave interference in the usual semiclassical limit ℏ→0, where the classical limit is given by Hamiltonian mechanics of particles, constitute a now standard part of the toolkit of theoretical physics. During the last years, these ideas have been extended into the field theoretical domain of systems composed of N indistinguishable particles, aka quantum fields, displaying a different type of semiclassical limit ℏeff=1/N→0 and accounting for genuine many-body quantum interference. The foundational concept behind this idea of many-body interference, the many-body version of the van Vleck-Gutzwillers semiclassical propagator, is explained in detail. Based on this the corresponding semiclassical many-body theory is reviewed. It provides a unified framework for understanding a variety of quantum chaotic phenomena addressed, including random-matrix spectral correlations in many-body systems, the universal morphology of many-body eigenstates, interference effects kin to mesoscopic weak localization, and the key to the scrambling of many-body correlations characterized by out-of-time-order correlators.
Abstract The quantum world distinguishes itself from the classical world by being governed by probability amplitudes rather than probabilities. On a single-particle level, quantum phases can be manipulated leading to observable interference patterns that can be used as a probe e.g. in matter wave microscopy. But the quantum world bears even more fascinating effects when it comes to the interplay between more than one particle. Correlations between quantum particles such as entanglement can be exploited to speed up computational algorithms or enable secure cryptography. Here, we propose and numerically explore a thought experiment to address the question whether quantum correlations between particles can be used in matter wave microscopy. Specifically, we address the following questions: can information be transferred between two mutually spin-correlated free-electron wavepackets? Can Coulomb and exchange correlations be linked to the decoherence and dephasing mechanisms of matter waves? Using a time-dependent Hartree–Fock algorithm, we will show that the exchange term has a substantial role in transferring the information between two mutually spin-correlated electrons, whereas the Hartree potential (or mean-field Coulomb potential) dominates the dephasing on a single-particle level. Our findings might facilitate fermionic matter wave interferometry experiments designed to retrieve information about non-classical correlations and the mechanism of decoherence in open quantum systems.
In this thesis, we study the coherence and the dynamics of ultracold atomic quantum gases, with a particular regard on Fermi gases. For what concerns the coherence, we study a Fermi gas confined on a ring threaded by an artificial gauge field. First, we show that the persistent current flowing in the ring can be used as probe for the different regimes of the BCS-BEC crossover. We propose a readout protocol for our results, based on the co-expansion of the gas trapped on the ring and a reference gas placed in the center of the ring itself. Next, we show that using the same expansion protocol we can extract information about the phase of the quantum gas. At intermediate times, the expanding cloud provides information about the first order coherence of the Fermi gas. In few-body systems, we can also access the number of particles in the system. At long times, we extract information about the many-body coherence coherence of the gas. Subsequently we focus on the dynamics of a strongly interacting two-component Fermi gas trapped in a harmonic potential. We consider a spin-separated state and then we follow the dynamics until long times. At short times, the dynamics is superdiffusive with dynamical exponents of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. At intermediate times, the dynamics is dominated by damped spin oscillations unveleing a spin-drag effect. At long times, we observe thermalization. Ultimately, we study a multicomponent Bose gas in the strongly interacting regime. We first provide the exact solution for the wavefunction and we discuss its symmetry. Afterwards, we study the response of the gas to an artificial gauge field, with particular regard to the period of the persistent current as a function of the gauge flux.
We discuss matter wave interference of Fermi condensates in strongly coupled s-wave and p-wave channels and the time evolution of a single cloud upon release from trap. In s-wave systems, where the order parameter is a complex scalar, we find that the interference patterns depend on the relative phase of the order parameters of the condensates. In p-wave systems involving the mixture of two-hyperfine states, we show that the interference pattern exhibits a polarization effect depending on the relative orientation of the two vector order parameters. However, in p-wave systems involving a single hyperfine state, we show that this angular effect reduces to an overall phase difference between the two interfering clouds, similar to s-wave. Lastly, we also point out that p-wave Fermi condensates exhibit an anisotropic expansion, reflecting the spatial anisotropy of the underlying interaction between fermions and the orbital nature of the vector order parameter.
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.