arXiv subjects

Helmut Strobel

Publications and source records attributed to Helmut Strobel.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Curved and expanding spacetime geometries in Bose-Einstein condensates

Phonons have the characteristic linear dispersion relation of massless relativistic particles. They arise as low energy excitations of Bose-Einstein condensates and, in nonhomogeneous situations, are governed by a space- and time-dependent acoustic metric. We discuss how this metric can be experimentally designed to realize curved spacetime geometries, in particular, expanding Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmologies, with negative, vanishing, or positive spatial curvature. A nonvanishing Hubble rate can be obtained through a time-dependent scattering length of the background condensate. For relativistic quantum fields this leads to the phenomenon of particle production, which we describe in detail. We explain how particle production and other interesting features of quantum field theory in curved spacetime can be tested in terms of experimentally accessible correlation functions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

High signal to noise absorption imaging of alkali atoms at moderate magnetic fields

We present an improved scheme for absorption imaging of alkali atoms at moderate magnetic fields, where the excited state is well in the Paschen-Back regime but the ground state hyperfine manifold is not. It utilizes four atomic levels to obtain an approximately closed optical cycle. With the resulting absorption of the corresponding two laser frequencies we extract the atomic column density of a $^{39}$K Bose-Einstein condensate. The scheme can be readily applied to all other alkali-like species.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Collisions of three-component vector solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates

Ultracold gases provide an unprecedented level of control for the investigation of soliton dynamics and collisions. We present a scheme for deterministically preparing pairs of three-component solitons in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Our method is based on local spin rotations which simultaneously imprint suitable phase and density distributions. This enables us to observe striking collisional properties of the vector degree of freedom which naturally arises for the coherent nature of the emerging multi-component solitons. We find that the solitonic properties in the quasi-one-dimensional system are quantitatively described by the integrable repulsive three-component Manakov model.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Experimental extraction of the quantum effective action for a non-equilibrium many-body system

Far-from-equilibrium situations are ubiquitous in nature. They are responsible for a wealth of phenomena, which are not simple extensions of near-equilibrium properties, ranging from fluid flows turning turbulent to the highly organized forms of life. On the fundamental level, quantum fluctuations or entanglement lead to novel forms of complex dynamical behaviour in many-body systems for which a description as emergent phenomena can be found within the framework of quantum field theory. A central quantity in these efforts, containing all information about the measurable physical properties, is the quantum effective action. Though the problem of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics can be exactly formulated in terms of the quantum effective action, the solution is in general beyond capabilities of classical computers. In this work, we present a strategy to determine the non-equilibrium quantum effective action using analog quantum simulators, and demonstrate our method experimentally with a quasi one-dimensional spinor Bose gas out of equilibrium. Building on spatially resolved snapshots of the spin degree of freedom, we infer the quantum effective action up to fourth order in an expansion in one-particle irreducible correlation functions at equal times. We uncover a strong suppression of the irreducible four-vertex emerging at low momenta, which solves the problem of dynamics in the highly occupied regime far from equilibrium where perturbative descriptions fail. Similar behaviour in this non-pertubative regime has been proposed in the context of early-universe cosmology. Our work constitutes a new realm of large-scale analog quantum computing, where the high level of control of synthetic quantum systems provides the means for the solution of long-standing theoretical problems in high-energy and condensed matter physics with an experimental approach.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Simultaneous Readout of Noncommuting Collective Spin Observables beyond the Standard Quantum Limit

We augment the information extractable from a single absorption image of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate by coupling to initially empty auxiliary hyperfine states. Performing unitary transformations in both, the original and auxiliary hyperfine manifold, enables the simultaneous measurement of multiple spin-1 observables. We apply this scheme to an elongated atomic cloud of $ ^{87} $Rb to simultaneously read out three orthogonal spin directions and with that directly access the spatial spin structure. The readout even allows the extraction of quantum correlations which we demonstrate by detecting spin nematic squeezing without state tomography.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Observation of universal dynamics in a spinor Bose gas far from equilibrium

The dynamics of quantum systems far from equilibrium represents one of the most challenging problems in theoretical many-body physics. While the evolution 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 spatiotemporal 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 cosmology, the dynamics of nuclear collision experiments described by quantum chromodynamics, or the post-quench dynamics in dilute quantum gases in non-relativistic quantum field theory. Here we observe the emergence of universal dynamics by evaluating spatially resolved spin correlations in a quasi one-dimensional spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. 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 transport of an emergent conserved quantity 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 signaling the existence of non-thermal fixed points. We confirm that the non-thermal scaling phenomenon involves no fine-tuning, by preparing different initial conditions and observing the same scaling behaviour. Our analog quantum simulation approach provides the basis to reveal the underlying mechanisms and characteristics of non-thermal universality classes. One may use this universality to learn, from experiments with ultra-cold gases, about fundamental aspects of dynamics studied in cosmology and quantum chromodynamics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Spatially distributed multipartite entanglement enables Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering of atomic clouds

A key resource for distributed quantum-enhanced protocols is entanglement between spatially separated modes. Yet, the robust generation and detection of nonlocal entanglement between spatially separated regions of an ultracold atomic system remains a challenge. Here, we use spin mixing in a tightly confined Bose-Einstein condensate to generate an entangled state of indistinguishable particles in a single spatial mode. We show experimentally that this local entanglement can be spatially distributed by self-similar expansion of the atomic cloud. Spatially resolved spin read-out is used to reveal a particularly strong form of quantum correlations known as Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering between distinct parts of the expanded cloud. Based on the strength of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering we construct a witness, which testifies up to genuine five-partite entanglement.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Quantum-Enhanced Sensing Based on Time Reversal of Nonlinear Dynamics

We experimentally demonstrate a nonlinear detection scheme exploiting time-reversal dynamics that disentangles continuous variable entangled states for feasible readout. Spin-exchange dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates is used as the nonlinear mechanism which not only generates entangled states but can also be time reversed by controlled phase imprinting. For demonstration of a quantum-enhanced measurement we construct an active atom SU(1,1) interferometer, where entangled state preparation and nonlinear readout both consist of parametric amplification. This scheme is capable of exhausting the quantum resource by detecting solely mean atom numbers. Controlled nonlinear transformations widen the spectrum of useful entangled states for applied quantum technologies.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Observation of scaling in the dynamics of a strongly quenched quantum gas

We report on the experimental observation of scaling in the time evolution following a sudden quench into the vicinity of a quantum critical point. The experimental system, a two-component Bose gas with coherent exchange between the constituents, allows for the necessary high level of control of parameters as well as the access to time-resolved spatial correlation functions. The theoretical analysis reveals that when quenching the system close to the critical point, the energy introduced by the quench leads to a short-time evolution exhibiting crossover reminiscent of the finite-temperature critical properties in the system's universality class. Observing the time evolution after a quench represents a paradigm shift in accessing and probing experimentally universal properties close to a quantum critical point and allows in a new way benchmarking of quantum many-body theory with experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Fisher Information and entanglement of non-Gaussian spin states

Entanglement is the key quantum resource for improving measurement sensitivity beyond classical limits. However, the production of entanglement in mesoscopic atomic systems has been limited to squeezed states, described by Gaussian statistics. Here we report on the creation and characterization of non-Gaussian many-body entangled states. We develop a general method to extract the Fisher information, which reveals that the quantum dynamics of a classically unstable system creates quantum states that are not spin squeezed but nevertheless entangled. The extracted Fisher information quantifies metrologically useful entanglement which we confirm by Bayesian phase estimation with sub shot-noise sensitivity. These methods are scalable to large particle numbers and applicable directly to other quantum systems.

quant-ph↗