Igor Tikhonenkov | Searcharxiv

arXiv2013

Minimal Fokker-Planck theory for the thermalization of mesoscopic subsystems

We explore a minimal paradigm for thermalization, consisting of two weakly-coupled, low dimensional, non-integrable subsystems. As demonstrated for Bose-Hubbard trimers, chaotic ergodicity results in a diffusive response of each subsystem, insensitive to the details of the drive exerted on it by the other. This supports the hypothesis that thermalization can be described by a Fokker Plank equation. We also observe, however, that Levy-flight type anomalies may arise in mesoscopic systems, due to the wide range of time scales that characterize `sticky' dynamics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2010

Optimal Gaussian squeezed states for atom-interferometry in the presence of phase diffusion

We optimize the signal-to-noise ratio of a Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer with Gaussian squeezed input states, in the presence interactions. For weak interactions, our results coincide with Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 100}, 250406 (2008), with optimal initial number-variance $σ_o\propto N^{1/3}$ and optimal signal-to-noise ratio $s_o\propto N^{2/3}$ for total atom number $N$. As the interaction strength $u$ increases past unity, phase-diffusion becomes dominant, leading to a transition in the optimal squeezing from initial number-squeezing to initial {\it phase}-squeezing with $σ_o\propto\sqrt{uN}$ and $s_o\propto\sqrt{N/u}$ shot-noise scaling. The initial phase-squeezing translates into hold-time number-squeezing, which is less sensitive to interactions than coherent states and improves $s_o$ by a factor of $\sqrt{u}$.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗