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Erich J. Mueller

Publications and source records attributed to Erich J. Mueller.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Stability of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a driven optical lattice: Crossover between weak and tight transverse confinement

We explore the effect of transverse confinement on the stability of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) loaded in a shaken one-dimensional or two-dimensional square lattice. We calculate the decay rate from two-particle collisions. We predict that if the transverse confinement exceeds a critical value, then, for appropriate shaking frequencies, the condensate is stable against scattering into transverse directions.

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Competing ground states of strongly correlated bosons in the Harper-Hofstadter-Mott model

Using an efficient cluster approach, we study the physics of two-dimensional lattice bosons in a strong magnetic field in the regime where the tunneling is much weaker than the on-site interaction strength. We study both dilute, hard core bosons at filling factors much smaller than unity occupation per site, and the physics in the vicinity of the superfluid-Mott lobes as the density is tuned away from unity. For hardcore bosons, we carry out extensive numerics for a fixed flux per plaquette $ϕ=1/5$ and $ϕ= 1/3$. At large flux, the lowest energy state is a strongly correlated superfluid, analogous to He-$4$, in which the order parameter is dramatically suppressed, but non-zero. At filling factors $ν=1/2,1$, we find competing incompressible states which are metastable. These appear to be commensurate density wave states. For small flux, the situation is reversed, and the ground state at $ν= 1/2$ is an incompressible density-wave solid. Here, we find a metastable lattice supersolid phase, where superfluidity and density-wave order coexist. We then perform careful numerical studies of the physics near the vicinity of the Mott lobes for $ϕ= 1/2$ and $ϕ= 1/4$. At $ϕ= 1/2$, the superfluid ground state has commensurate density-wave order. At $ϕ= 1/4$, incompressible phases appear outside the Mott lobes at densities $n = 1.125$ and $n = 1.25$, corresponding to filling fractions $ν= 1/2$ and $1$ respectively. These phases, which are absent in single-site mean-field theory are metastable, and have slightly higher energy than the superfluid, but the energy difference between them shrinks rapidly with increasing cluster size, suggestive of an incompressible ground state. We thus explore the interplay between Mott physics, magnetic Landau levels, and superfluidity, finding a rich phase diagram of competing compressible and incompressible states.

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Evolution of Coherence During Ramps Across the Mott-Superfluid Phase Boundary

We calculate how correlations in a Bose lattice gas grow during a finite speed ramp from the Mott to the Superfluid regime. We use an interacting doublon-holon model, applying a mean-field approach for implementing hard-core constraints between these degrees of freedom. Our solutions are valid in any dimension, and agree with experimental results and with DMRG calculations in one dimension. We find that the final energy density of the system drops quickly with increased ramp time for ramps shorter than one hopping time, $Jτ_{ramp}\lesssim 1$. For longer ramps, the final energy density depends only weakly on ramp speed. We calculate the effects of inelastic light scattering during such ramps.

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Transverse collisional instabilities of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a driven one-dimensional lattice

Motivated by recent experiments, we analyse the stability of a three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) loaded in a periodically driven one-dimensional optical lattice. Such periodically driven systems do not have a thermodynamic ground state, but may have a long-lived steady state which is an eigenstate of a "Floquet Hamiltonian". We explore collisional instabilities of the Floquet ground state which transfer energy into the transverse modes. We calculate decay rates, finding that the lifetime scales as the inverse square of the scattering length and inverse of the peak three- dimensional density. These rates can be controlled by adding additional transverse potentials.

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Quasiparticle Dispersions and Lifetimes in the Normal State of the BCS-BEC Crossover

We compute the spectral density in the normal phase of an interacting homogenous Fermi gas using a T-matrix approximation. We fit the quasiparticle peaks of the spectral density to BCS-like dispersion relations, and extract estimates of a "pseudo-gap" energy scale and an effective Fermi-wavevector as a function of interaction strength. We find that the effective Fermi-wavevector of the quasiparticles vanishes when the inverse scattering length exceeds some positive threshold. We also find that near unitarity the quasiparticle lifetimes, estimated from the widths of the peaks in the spectral density, approach values on the order of the inverse Fermi-energy. These results are consistent with the "breakdown of Fermi liquid theory" observed in recent experiments.

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Collisionless spin dynamics in a magnetic field gradient

We study the collisionless spin dynamics of a harmonically trapped Fermi gas in a magnetic field gradient. In the absence of interactions, the system evolution is periodic: the magnetization develops twists, which evolve into a longitudinal polarization. Recurrences follow. For weak interaction, the exchange interactions lead to beats in these oscillations. We present an array of analytic and numerical techniques for studying this physics.

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Anomalous charge pumping in a one-dimensional optical superlattice

We model atomic motion in a sliding superlattice potential to explore topological "charge pumping" and to find optimal parameters for experimental observation of this phenomenon. We analytically study the band-structure, finding how the Wannier states evolve as two sinusoidal lattices are moved relative to one-another, and relate this evolution to the center of mass motion of an atomic cloud. We pay particular attention to counterintuitive or anomalous regimes, such as when the atomic motion is opposite to that of the lattice.

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Heating from Continuous Number Density Measurements in Optical Lattices

We explore the effects of continuous number density measurement on atoms in an optical lattice. By integrating a master equation for quantum observables, we calculate how single particle correlations decay. We consider weakly- and strongly- interacting bosons and noninteracting fermions. Even in the Mott regime, such measurements destroy correlations and increase the average energy, as long as some hopping is allowed. We explore the role of spatial resolution, and find that the heating rate is proportional to the amount of information gained from such measurements.

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Kinetics of Bose-Einstein condensation in a dimple potential

We model the dynamics of condensation in a bimodal trap, consisting of a large reservoir region, and a tight "dimple" whose depth can be controlled. Experimental investigations have found that such dimple traps provide an efficient means of achieving condensation. In our kinetic equations, we include two- and three-body processes. The two-body processes populate the dimple, and lead to loss when one of the colliding atoms is ejected from the trap. The three-body processes produce heating and loss. We explain the principal trends, give a detailed description of the dynamics, and provide quantitative predictions for timescales and condensate yields. From these simulations, we extract optimal parameters for future experiments.

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Theory of Bosons in two-leg ladders with large magnetic fields

We calculate the ground state of a Bose gas trapped on a two-leg ladder where Raman-induced hopping mimics the effect of a large magnetic field. In the mean-field limit, where there are large numbers of particles per site, this maps onto a uniformly frustrated two-leg ladder classical spin model. The net particle current always vanishes in the ground state, but generically there is a finite "chiral current", corresponding to equal and opposite flow on the two legs. We vary the strength of the hopping across the rungs of the ladder and the interaction between the bosons. We find three phases: (1) A "saturated chiral current phase" (SCCP), where the density is uniform and the chiral current is simply related to the strength of the magnetic field. In this state the only broken symmetry is the $U(1)$ condensate phase. (2) A "biased ladder phase" (BLP), where the density is higher on one leg than the other. The fluid velocity is higher on the lower density leg, so the net current is zero. In addition to the $U(1)$ condensate phase, this has a broken $Z_2$ reflection symmetry. (3) A "modulated density phase" (MDP), where the atomic density is modulated along the ladder. In addition to the $U(1)$ condensate phase, this has a second broken $U(1)$ symmetry corresponding to translations of the density wave. We further study the fluctuations of the condensate in the BLP, finding a roton-maxon like excitation spectrum. Decreasing the hopping along the rungs softens the spectrum. As the energy of the "roton" reaches to zero, the BLP becomes unstable. We describe the experimental signatures of these phases, including the response to changing the frequency of the Raman transition.

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Route to observing topological edge modes in ultracold fermions

We show how to exploit the rich hyperfine structure of fermionic alkali atoms to produce a quasi-1D topological superfluid while avoiding excessive heating from off-resonant scattering. We model interacting fermions where four hyperfine states are coupled by a variety of optical and microwave fields. We calculate the local density of states in a trap, finding regimes with zero energy topological edge modes. Heating rates in this system are significantly suppressed compared to simple Raman-induced spin-orbit coupling approaches.

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Universal Quantum Computation With Majorana Fermion Edge Modes Through Microwave Spectroscopy Of Quasi-1D Cold Gases In Optical Lattices

We describe how microwave spectroscopy of cold fermions in quasi-1D traps can be used to detect, manipulate, and entangle exotic non-local qbits associated with "Majorana" edge modes. We present different approaches to generate the p-wave superfluidity which is responsible for these topological zero-energy edge modes. We find that the edge modes have clear signatures in the microwave spectrum, and that the line shape distinguishes between the degenerate states of a qbit encoded in these edge modes. Moreover, the microwaves rotate the system in its degenerate ground-state manifold. We use these rotations to implement a set of universal quantum gates, allowing the system to be used as a universal quantum computer.

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Vortex Ring Dynamics in Trapped Bose-Einstein Condensates

We use the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation to study the motion of a vortex ring produced by phase imprinting on an elongated cloud of cold atoms. Our approach models the experiments of Yefsah et. al. [Nature \textbf{499}, 426] on $^6$Li in the BEC regime where the fermions are tightly bound into bosonic dimers. We find ring oscillation periods which are much larger than the period of the axial harmonic trap. Our results lend further strength to Bulgac et. al.'s arguments [arXiv: 1306.4266] that the "heavy solitons" seen in those experiments are actually vortex rings. We numerically calculate the periods of oscillation for the vortex rings as a function of interaction strength, trap aspect ratio, and minimum vortex ring radius. In the presence of axial anisotropies the rings undergo complicated internal dynamics where they break into sets of vortex lines, then later combine into rings. These structures oscillate with a similar frequency to simple axially symmetric rings.

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Dynamics of correlations in a dilute Bose gas following an interaction quench

We calculate the dynamics of the one and two body correlation functions in a homogeneous Bose gas at zero temperature following a sudden change in the interaction strength, with and without an underlying lattice. We focus on conceptually simple examples that highlight the features arising separately from interactions and band structure. In the continuum, we show that the Bogoliubov spectrum leads to a diffusive evolution of density correlations for short times, and ballistic at long times. In the lattice we find that the correlation functions develop additional oscillations. Moreover, the lattice dispersion induces an additional velocity scale, and some features instead propagate with that velocity. Finally, we discuss the time-evolution of the contact following a quench. Our predictions, which can be readily tested in experiments, serve as a benchmark for considering the dynamics of more complicated systems.

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Variational study of polarons and bipolarons in a 1D Bose lattice gas in both superfluid and Mott regimes

We use variational methods to study a spin impurity in a 1D Bose lattice gas. Both in the strongly interacting superfluid regime and the Mott regime we find that the impurity binds with a hole, forming a polaron. Our calculations for the dispersion of the polaron are consistent with recent experiments by Fukuhara et. al. [Nature Phys. 9, 235 (2013)] and give a better understanding of their numerical simulations. We find that for sufficiently weak interactions there are ranges of momentum for which the polaron is unstable. We propose experimentally studying the stability of the polaron by measuring the correlation between the impurity and holes. We also study two interacting impurities, finding stable bipolarons for sufficiently strong interactions.

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Radio frequency spectrum of fermions near a narrow Feshbach resonance

We calculate the radio frequency (RF) spectrum of fermionic atoms near a narrow Feshbach resonance, explaining observations made in ultracold samples of $^6\rm{Li}$ [E. L. Hazlett {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 108}, 045304 (2012)]. We use a two channel resonance model to show that the RF spectrum contains two peaks. In the wide-resonance limit, nearly all spectral weight lies in one of these peaks, and typically the second peak is very broad. We find strong temperature dependence, which can be traced to the energy dependence of the two-particle scattering. In addition to microscopic calculations, we use sum rule arguments to find generic features of the spectrum which are model independent.

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Dynamics of correlations in shallow optical lattices

We explore how correlations evolve in a gas of lattice bosons when the lattice depth is rapidly reduced. We find a simple closed form expression for the static structure factor in the limit of vanishing interactions. The corresponding real-space density correlation function shows multiple spatial oscillations which linearly disperse as a function of time. By perturbatively including the effects of the interactions we calculate how the boson quasi-momentum evolves following the quench.

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Magnetic field dependence of Raman coupling in Alkali atoms

We calculate the magnetic field dependence of Rabi rates for two-photon optical Raman processes in alkali atoms. Due to a decoupling of the nuclear and electronic spins, these rates fall with increasing field. At the typical magnetic fields of alkali atom Feshbach resonances (B\sim 200G-1200G), the Raman rates have the same order of magnitude as their zero field values, suggesting one can combine Raman-induced gauge fields/spin-orbital coupling with strong Feshbach-induced interactions. The exception is $^6$Li, where there is a factor of 7 suppression in the Raman coupling, compared to its already small zero-field value.

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