arXiv subjects

J. E. Williams

Publications and source records attributed to J. E. Williams.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2009

Mesoscopic Effects in Quantum Phases of Ultracold Quantum Gases in Optical Lattices

We present a wide array of quantum measures on numerical solutions of 1D Bose- and Fermi-Hubbard Hamiltonians for finite-size systems with open boundary conditions. Finite size effects are highly relevant to ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices, where an external trap creates smaller effective regions in the form of the celebrated "wedding cake" structure and the local density approximation is often not applicable. Specifically, for the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian we calculate number, quantum depletion, local von-Neumann entropy, generalized entanglement or Q-measure, fidelity, and fidelity susceptibility; for the Fermi-Hubbard Hamiltonian we also calculate the pairing correlations, magnetization, charge-density correlations, and antiferromagnetic structure factor. Our numerical method is imaginary time propagation via time-evolving block decimation. As part of our study we provide a careful comparison of canonical vs. grand canonical ensembles and Gutzwiller vs. entangled simulations. The most striking effect of finite size occurs for bosons: we observe a strong blurring of the tips of the Mott lobes accompanied by higher depletion, and show how the location of the first Mott lobe tip approaches the thermodynamic value as a function of system size.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2007

Adiabatic Phase Diagram of an Ultracold Atomic Fermi Gas with a Feshbach Resonance

We determine the adiabatic phase diagram of a resonantly-coupled system of Fermi atoms and Bose molecules confined in the harmonic trap by using the local density approximation. The adiabatic phase diagram shows the fermionic condensate fraction composed of condensed molecules and Cooper pair atoms. The key idea of our work is conservation of entropy through the adiabatic process, extending the study of Williams et al. [Williams et al., New J. Phys. 6, 123 (2004)] for an ideal gas mixture to include the resonant interaction in a mean-field theory. We also calculate the molecular conversion efficiency as a function of initial temperature. Our work helps to understand recent experiments on the BCS-BEC crossover, in terms of the initial temperature measured before a sweep of the magnetic field.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Adiabatic Phase Diagram on Degenerate Fermi Gas with Feshbach-Resonance

We determine the adiabatic phase diagrams for a resonantly-coupled system of Fermi atoms and Bose molecules confined in a harmonic trap by using the local density approximation. The key idea of our work is conservation of entropy through the adiabatic process. We also calculate the molecular conversion efficiency as a function of the initial temperature. Our work helps to understand recent experiments on the BCS-BEC crossover, in terms of the initial temperature measured before a sweep of the magnetic field.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2005

Theory of Feshbach molecule formation in a dilute gas during a magnetic field ramp

Starting with coupled atom-molecule Boltzmann equations, we develop a simplified model to understand molecule formation observed in recent experiments. Our theory predicts several key features: (1) the effective adiabatic rate constant is proportional to density; (2) in an adiabatic ramp, the dependence of molecular fraction on magnetic field resembles an error function whose width and centroid are related to the temperature; (3) the molecular production efficiency is a universal function of the initial phase space density, the specific form of which we derive for a classical gas. Our predictions show qualitative agreement with the data from [Hodby et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf{94}}, 120402 (2005)] without the use of adjustable parameters.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2004

Ultracold Fermion Cooling Cycle using Heteronuclear Feshbach Resonances

We consider an ideal gas of Bose and Fermi atoms in a harmonic trap, with a Feshbach resonance in the interspecies atomic scattering that can lead to formation of fermionic molecules. We map out the phase diagram for this three-component mixture in chemical and thermal equilibrium. Considering adiabatic association and dissociation of the molecules, we identify a possible cooling cycle, which in ideal circumstances can yield an exponential increase of the phase-space density.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2004

Kinetic Theory of a Spin-1/2 Bose-Condensed Gas

We derive a kinetic theory for a spin-1/2 Bose-condensed gas of two-level atoms at finite temperatures. The condensate dynamics is described by a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the two-component spinor order parameter, which includes the interaction with the uncondensed fraction. The noncondensate atoms are described by a quantum kinetic equation, which is a generalization of the spin kinetic equation for spin-polarized quantum gases to include couplings to the condensate degree of freedom. The kinetic equation is used to derive hydrodynamic equations for the noncondensate spin density. The condensate and noncondensate spins are coupled directly through the exchange mean field. Collisions between the condensate and noncondensate atoms give rise to an additional contribution to the spin diffusion relaxation rate. In addition, they give rise to mutual relaxation of the condensate and noncondensate due to lack of local equilibrium between the two components.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2004

Atom-molecule equilibration in a degenerate Fermi gas with resonant interactions

We present a nonequilibrium kinetic theory describing atom-molecule population dynamics in a two-component Fermi gas with a Feshbach resonance. Key collision integrals emerge that govern the relaxation of the atom-molecule mixture to chemical and thermal equilibrium. Our focus is on the pseudogap regime where molecules form above the superfluid transition temperature. In this regime, we formulate a simple model for the atom-molecule population dynamics. The model predicts the saturation of molecule formation that has been observed in recent experiments, and indicates that a dramatic enhancement of the atom-molecule conversion efficiency occurs at low temperatures.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2004

Phase diagrams for an ideal gas mixture of fermionic atoms and bosonic molecules

We calculate the phase diagrams for a harmonically trapped ideal gas mixture of fermionic atoms and bosonic molecules in chemical and thermal equilibrium, where the internal energy of the molecules can be adjusted relative to that of the atoms by use of a tunable Feshbach resonance. We plot the molecule fraction and the fraction of Bose-condensed molecules as functions of the temperature and internal molecular energy. We show the paths traversed in the phase diagrams when the molecular energy is varied either suddenly or adiabatically. Our model calculation helps to interpret the {\it{adiabatic}} phase diagrams obtained in recent experiments on the BEC-BCS crossover, in which the condensate fraction is plotted as a function of the {\it{initial}} temperature of the Fermi gas measured before a sweep of the magnetic field through the resonance region.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2002

Linear spin waves in a trapped Bose gas

An ultra-cold Bose gas of two-level atoms can be thought of as a spin-1/2 Bose gas. It supports spin-wave collective modes due to the exchange mean field. Such collective spin oscillations have been observed in recent experiments at JILA with ${}^{87}$Rb atoms confined in a harmonic trap. We present a theory of the spin-wave collective modes based on the moment method for trapped gases. In the collisionless and hydrodynamic limits, we derive analytic expressions for the frequencies and damping rates of modes with dipole and quadrupole symmetry. We find that the frequency for a given mode is given by a temperature independent function of the peak density $n$, and falls off as $1/n$. We also find that, to a very good approximation, excitations in the radial and axial directions are decoupled. We compare our model to the numerical integration of a one dimensional version of the kinetic equation and find very good qualitative agreement. The damping rates, however, show the largest deviation for intermediate densities, where one expects Landau damping -- which is unaccounted for in our moment approach -- to play a significant role.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2002

Spatial resolution of spin waves in an ultra-cold gas

We present the first spatially resolved images of spin waves in a gas. The complete longitudinal and transverse spin field as a function of time and space is reconstructed. Frequencies and damping rates for a standing-wave mode are extracted and compared with theory.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2001

Longitudinal spin waves in a dilute Bose gas

We present a kinetic theory for a dilute noncondensed Bose gas of two-level atoms that predicts the transient spin segregation observed in a recent experiment. The underlying mechanism driving spin currents in the gas is due to a mean field effect arising from the quantum interference between the direct and exchange scattering of atoms in different spin states. We numerically solve the spin Boltzmann equation, using a one dimensional model, and find excellent agreement with experimental data.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2001

Dynamical instability of a condensate induced by a rotating thermal gas

We study surface modes of the condensate in the presence of a rotating thermal cloud in an axisymmetric trap. By considering collisions that transfer atoms between the condensate and noncondensate, we find that modes which rotate in the same sense as the thermal cloud damp less strongly than counter-rotating modes. We show that above a critical angular rotation frequency, equivalent to the Landau stability criterion, the co-rotating mode becomes dynamically unstable, leading to the possibility of vortex nucleation. This kind of mechanism is proposed as a natural explanation for the formation of vortices observed recently in the experiment of Haljan \emph{et al} {[}P. C. Haljan \emph{et al.}, cond-mat/0106362{]}. We also generalize our stability analysis to treat the case where the stationary state of the condensate already possesses a single vortex.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2001

Optimal conditions for observing Josephson oscillations in a double-well Bose-gas condensate

The Josephson oscillations between condensates in a double-well trap are known theoretically to be strongly effected by the mean field interaction in dilute atomic gases. The most important effect is that the amplitude of oscillation in the relative population of the two wells is greatly suppressed due to the mean field interaction, which can make it difficult to observe the Josephson effect. Starting from the work of Raghavan, Smerzi, Fantoni, and Shenoy, we calculate the maximum amplitude of oscillation in the relative population as a function of various physical parameters, such as the trap aspect ratio, the Gaussian barrier height and width, and the total number of atoms in the condensate. We also compare results for ${}^{23}$Na and ${}^{87}$Rb. Our main new result is that the maximum amplitude of oscillation depends strongly on the aspect ratio of the harmonic trap and can be maximized in a ``pancake'' trap, as used in the experiment of Anderson and Kasevich.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Damped Bogoliubov excitations of a condensate interacting with a static thermal cloud

We calculate the damping of condensate collective excitations at finite temperatures arising from the lack of equilibrium between the condensate and thermal atoms. We neglect the non-condensate dynamics by fixing the thermal cloud in static equilibrium. We derive a set of generalized Bogoliubov equations for finite temperatures that contain an explicit damping term due to collisional exchange of atoms between the two components. We have numerically solved these Bogoliubov equations to obtain the temperature dependence of the damping of the condensate modes in a harmonic trap. We compare these results with our recent work based on the Thomas-Fermi approximation.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Damping of condensate collective modes due to equilibration with the non-condensate

We consider the damping of condensate collective modes at finite temperatures arising from lack of equilibrium between the condensate and the non-condensate atoms, an effect that is ignored in the usual discussion of the collisionless region. As a first approximation, we ignore the dynamics of the thermal cloud. Our calculations should be applicable to collective modes of the condensate which are oscillating out-of-phase with the thermal cloud. We obtain a generalized Stringari equation of motion for the condensate at finite temperatures, which includes a damping term associated with the fact that the condensate is not in diffusive equilibrium with the static thermal cloud. This inter-component collisional damping of the condensate modes is comparable in magnitude to the Landau damping considered in the recent literature.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1999

Preparing Topological States of a Bose-Einstein Condensate

The burgeoning field of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute alkali and hydrogen gases has stimulated a great deal of research into the statistical physics of weakly interacting quantum degenerate systems. The recent experiments offer the possibility for exploring fundamental properties of low temperature physics in a very controllable and accessible way. One current goal of experimenters in this field is to observe superfluid-like behavior in these trapped Bose gases, analogous to persistent currents in superfluid liquid helium, which flow without observable viscosity, and electric currents in superconductors, which flow without observable resistance. These ``super'' properties of Bose-condensed systems occur because the macroscopic occupation of a quantized mode provides a stabilizing mechanism that inhibits decay due to thermal relaxation. Here we solve the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation of motion of the condensate involving two hyperfine atomic states and show how to generate, with extremely high fidelity, topological modes such as vortices that open the door to the study of superfluidity in these new systems. Our approach is inspired by recent experiments investigating a trapped condensate with two strongly coupled internal states. We show how the interplay between the internal and motional dynamics can be utilized to prepare the condensate in a variety of interesting configurations.

cond-mat↗