arXiv subjects

Giulio Casati

Publications and source records attributed to Giulio Casati.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Steering Bose-Einstein condensates despite time symmetry

A Bose-Einstein condensate in an oscillating spatially asymmetric potential is shown to exhibit a directed current for unbiased initial conditions despite time symmetry. This phenomenon occurs only if the interaction between atoms, treated in mean-field approximation, exceeds a critical value. Our findings can be described with a three-mode model (TMM). These TMM results corroborate well with a many-body study over a time scale which increases with increasing atom number. The duration of this time scale probes the validity of the used mean-field approximation.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2009

Negative differential conductivity in far-from-equilibrium quantum spin chains

We show that, when a finite anisotropic Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain in the gapped regime is driven far from equilibrium, oppositely polarized ferromagnetic domains build up at the edges of the chain, thus suppressing quantum spin transport. As a consequence, a negative differential conductivity regime arises, where increasing the driving decreases the current. The above results are explained in terms of magnon localization and are shown to be structurally stable against breaking of integrability.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Complexity of Quantum States and Reversibility of Quantum Motion

We present a quantitative analysis of the reversibility properties of classically chaotic quantum motion. We analyze the connection between reversibility and the rate at which a quantum state acquires a more and more complicated structure in its time evolution. This complexity is characterized by the number ${\cal M}(t)$ of harmonics of the (initially isotropic, i.e. ${\cal M}(0)=0$) Wigner function, which are generated during quantum evolution for the time $t$. We show that, in contrast to the classical exponential increase, this number can grow not faster than linearly and then relate this fact with the degree of reversibility of the quantum motion. To explore the reversibility we reverse the quantum evolution at some moment $T$ immediately after applying at this moment an instant perturbation governed by a strength parameter $ξ$. It follows that there exists a critical perturbation strength, $ξ_c\approx \sqrt{2}/{\cal M}(T)$, below which the initial state is well recovered, whereas reversibility disappears when $ξ\gtrsim ξ_c(T)$. In the classical limit the number of harmonics proliferates exponentially with time and the motion becomes practically irreversible. The above results are illustrated in the example of the kicked quartic oscillator model.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2008

How complex is the quantum motion?

In classical mechanics the complexity of a dynamical system is characterized by the rate of local exponential instability which effaces the memory of initial conditions and leads to practical irreversibility. In striking contrast, quantum mechanics appears to exhibit strong memory of the initial state. Here we introduce a notion of complexity for a quantum system and relate it to its stability and reversibility properties.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Thermoelectric transport in billiard systems

We discuss the thermoelectric (TE) transport in billiard systems of interacting particles, coupled to stochastic particle reservoirs. Recently in [1], analytical exact expressions for the TE transport of noninteracting gases of polyatomic molecules were obtained, and a novel microscopic mechanism for the increase of thermoelectric efficiency described. After briefly reviewing the derivation of [1], in this paper we focus on the effects that the particle-particle interaction has on the TE efficiency. We show that interaction reduces the maximal thermodynamic efficiency. However, the mechanism for the efficiency's increase towards its Carnot upper limit, described in [1], remains unaffected.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Increasing thermoelectric efficiency towards the Carnot limit

We study the problem of thermoelectricity and propose a simple microscopic mechanism for the increase of thermoelectric efficiency. We consider the cross transport of particles and energy in open classical ergodic billiards. We show that, in the linear response regime, where we find exact expressions for all transport coefficients, the thermoelectric efficiency of ideal ergodic gases can approach Carnot efficiency for sufficiently complex charge carrier molecules. Our results are clearly demonstrated with a simple numerical simulation of a Lorentz gas of particles with internal rotational degrees of freedom.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Detecting entanglement of random states with an entanglement witness

The entanglement content of high-dimensional random pure states is almost maximal, nevertheless, we show that, due to the complexity of such states, the detection of their entanglement using witness operators is rather difficult. We discuss the case of unknown random states, and the case of known random states for which we can optimize the entanglement witness. Moreover, we show that coarse graining, modeled by considering mixtures of m random states instead of pure ones, leads to a decay in the entanglement detection probability exponential with m. Our results also allow to explain the emergence of classicality in coarse grained quantum chaotic dynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Heat Flow in Classical and Quantum Systems and Thermal Rectification

The understanding of the underlying dynamical mechanisms which determine the macroscopic laws of heat conduction is a long standing task of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. A better understanding of the mechanism of heat conduction may lead to potentially interesting applications based on the possibility to control the heat flow. Indeed, different models of thermal rectifiers has been recently proposed in which heat can flow preferentially in one direction. Although these models are far away from a prototype realization, the underlying mechanisms are of very general nature and, as such, are suitable of improvement and may eventually lead to real applications. We briefly discuss the problem of heat transport in classical and quantum systems and its relation to the chaoticity of the dynamics. We then study the phenomenon of thermal rectification and briefly discuss the different types of microscopic mechanisms that lead to the rectification of heat flow.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

The ratchet effect and the transporting islands in the chaotic sea

We study directed transport in a classical deterministic dissipative system. We consider the generic case of mixed phase space and show that large ratchet currents can be generated thanks to the presence, in the Hamiltonian limit, of transporting stability islands embedded in the chaotic sea. Due to the simultaneous presence of chaos and dissipation the stationary value of the current is independent of initial conditions, except for initial states with very small measure.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Directed deterministic classical transport: symmetry breaking and beyond

We consider transport properties of a double delta-kicked system, in a regime where all the symmetries (spatial and temporal) that could prevent directed transport are removed. We analytically investigate the (non trivial) behavior of the classical current and diffusion properties and show that the results are in good agreement with numerical computations. The role of dissipation for a meaningful classical ratchet behavior is also discussed.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2006

Dynamical chaos versus quantum interference

We discuss the dephasing induced by the internal classical chaotic motion in the absence of any external environment. To this end a new extension of fidelity for mixed states is introduced, which we name {\it allegiance}. Such quantity directly accounts for quantum interference and is measurable in a Ramsey interferometry experiment. We show that in the semiclassical limit the decay of the allegiance is exactly expressed, due to the dephasing, in terms of an appropriate classical correlation function. Our results are derived analytically for the case of a nonlinear driven oscillator and then numerically confirmed for the kicked rotor model.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Magnetically Induced Thermal Rectification

We consider far from equilibrium heat transport in chaotic billiard chains with non-interacting charged particles in the presence of non-uniform transverse magnetic field. If half of the chain is placed in a strong magnetic field, or if the strength of the magnetic field has a large gradient along the chain, heat current is shown to be asymmetric with respect to exchange of the temperatures of the heat baths. Thermal rectification factor can be arbitrarily large for sufficiently small temperature of one of the baths.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Classical and Quantum Chaos and Control of Heat Flow

We discuss the problem of heat conduction in classical and quantum low dimensional systems from a microscopic point of view. At the classical level we provide convincing numerical evidence for the validity of Fourier law of heat conduction in linear mixing systems, i.e. in systems without exponential instability. At the quantum level, where motion is characterized by the lack of exponential dynamical instability, we show that the validity of Fourier law is in direct relation with the onset of quantum chaos. We then study the phenomenon of thermal rectification and briefly discuss the different types of microscopic mechanisms that lead to the rectification of heat flow. The control of heat conduction by nonlinearity opens the possibility to propose new devices such as a thermal rectifier.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Many-body quantum ratchet in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We study the dynamics of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a toroidal trap and exposed to a pair of periodically flashed optical lattices. We first prove that in the noninteracting case this system can present a quantum symmetry which forbids the ratchet effect classically expected. We then show how many-body atom-atom interactions, treated within the mean-field approximation, can break this quantum symmetry, thus generating directed transport.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Chaotic ratchet dynamics with cold atoms in a pair of pulsed optical lattices

We present a very simple model for realizing directed transport with cold atoms in a pair of periodically flashed optical lattices. The origin of this ratchet effect is explained and its robustness demonstrated under imperfections typical of cold atom experiments. We conclude that our model offers a clear-cut way to implement directed transport in an atom optical experiment.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Conservative chaotic map as a model of quantum many-body environment

We study the dynamics of the entanglement between two qubits coupled to a common chaotic environment, described by the quantum kicked rotator model. We show that the kicked rotator, which is a single-particle deterministic dynamical system, can reproduce the effects of a pure dephasing many-body bath. Indeed, in the semiclassical limit the interaction with the kicked rotator can be described as a random phase-kick, so that decoherence is induced in the two-qubit system. We also show that our model can efficiently simulate non-Markovian environments.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Quantum dephasing and decay of classical correlation functions in chaotic systems

We discuss the dephasing induced by the internal classical chaotic motion in the absence of any external environment. To this end we consider a suitable extension of fidelity for mixed states which is measurable in a Ramsey interferometry experiment. We then relate the dephasing to the decay of this quantity which, in the semiclassical limit, is expressed in terms of an appropriate classical correlation function. Our results are derived analytically for the example of a nonlinear driven oscillator and then numerically confirmed for the kicked rotor model.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Negative differential thermal resistance and thermal transistor

We report on the first model of a thermal transistor to control heat flow. Like its electronic counterpart, our thermal transistor is a three-terminal device with the important feature that the current through the two terminals can be controlled by small changes in the temperature or in the current through the third terminal. This control feature allows us to switch the device between "off" (insulating) and "on" (conducting) states or to amplify a small current. The thermal transistor model is possible because of the negative differential thermal resistance.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗