arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Joachim Brand.
The dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate is studied theoretically in a combined periodic plus harmonic external potential. Different dynamical regimes of stable and unstable collective dipole and Bloch oscillations are analysed in terms of a quantum mechanical pendulum model. Nonlinear interactions are shown to counteract quantum-mechanical dephasing and lead to phase-coherent, superfluid transport.
Correlation functions related to the dynamic density response of the one-dimensional Bose gas in the model of Lieb and Liniger are calculated. An exact Bose-Fermi mapping is used to work in a fermionic representation with a pseudopotential Hamiltonian. The Hartree-Fock and generalized random phase approximations are derived and the dynamic polarizability is calculated. The results are valid to first order in 1/γwhere γis Lieb-Liniger coupling parameter. Approximations for the dynamic and static structure factor at finite temperature are presented. The results preclude superfluidity at any finite temperature in the large-γregime due to the Landau criterion. Due to the exact Bose-Fermi duality, the results apply for spinless fermions with weak p-wave interactions as well as for strongly interacting bosons.
Matter-wave bright solitons are predicted to reflect from a purely attractive potential well although they are macroscopic objects with classical particle-like properties. The non-classical reflection occurs at small velocities and a pronounced switching to almost perfect transmission above a critical velocity is found, caused by nonlinear mean-field interactions. Full numerical results from the nonlinear Schrödinger equation are complimented by a two-mode variational calculation to explain the predicted effect, which can be used for velocity filtering of solitons. The experimental realization with laser-induced potentials or two-component Bose-Einstein condensates is suggested.
We study the scattering properties of topological solitons on obstructions in the form of holes and barriers. We use the 'new baby Skyrme' model in (2+1) dimensions and we model the obstructions by making the coefficient of the baby skyrme model potential - position dependent. We find that that the barrier leads to the repulsion of the solitons (for low velocities) or their complete transmission (at higher velocities) with the process being essentially elastic. The hole case is different; for small velocities the solitons are trapped while at higher velocities they are transmitted with a loss of energy. We present some comments explaining the observed behaviour.
Interactions of solitary waves in a cylindrically confined Bose-Einstein condensate are investigated by simulating their head-on collisions. Slow vortex rings and fast solitons are found to collide elastically contrary to the situation in the three-dimensional homogeneous Bose gas. Strongly inelastic collisions are absent for low density condensates but occur at higher densities for intermediate velocities. The scattering behaviour is rationalised by use of dispersion diagrams. During inelastic collisions, spherical shell-like structures of low density are formed and they eventually decay into depletion droplets with solitary wave features. The relation to similar shells observed in a recent experiment [Ginsberg et al. Phys Rev. Lett. 94, 040403 (2005)] is discussed.
We consider the motion of a matter-wave bright soliton under the influence of a cloud of thermal particles. In the ideal one-dimensional system, the scattering process of the quasiparticles with the soliton is reflectionless, however, the quasiparticles acquire a phase shift. In the realistic system of a Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a tight waveguide trap, the transverse degrees of freedom generate an extra but small nonlinearity in the system which gives rise to finite reflection and leads to dissipative motion of the soliton. We calculate the velocity and temperature-dependent frictional force and diffusion coefficient of a matter wave bright soliton immersed in a thermal cloud.
While the 1D Bose gas appears to exhibit superfluid response under certain conditions, it fails the Landau criterion according to the elementary excitation spectrum calculated by Lieb. The apparent riddle is solved by calculating the dynamic structure factor of the Lieb-Liniger 1D Bose gas. A pseudopotential Hamiltonian in the fermionic representation is used to derive a Hartree-Fock operator, which turns out to be well-behaved and local. The Random-Phase approximation for the dynamic structure factor based on this derivation is calculated analytically and is expected to be valid at least up to first order in $1/γ$, where $γ$ is the dimensionless interaction strength of the model. The dynamic structure factor in this approximation clearly indicates a crossover behavior from the non-superfluid Tonks to the superfluid weakly-interacting regime, which should be observable by Bragg scattering in current experiments.
A time-dependent Kohn-Sham scheme for 1D bosons with contact interaction is derived based on a model of spinor fermions. This model is specifically designed for the study of the strong interaction regime close to the Tonks gas. It allows us to treat the transition from the strongly-interacting Tonks-Girardeau to the weakly-interacting quasicondensate regime and provides an intuitive picture of the extent of fermionization in the system. An adiabatic local-density approximation is devised for the study of time-dependent processes. This scheme is shown to yield not only accurate ground-state properties but also overall features of the elementary excitation spectrum, which is described exactly in the Tonks-gas limit.
We present the experimental discovery of compound structures comprising solitons and vortex rings in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). We examine both their creation via soliton-vortex collisions and their subsequent development, which is largely governed by the dynamics of interacting vortex rings. A theoretical model in three-dimensional (3D) cylindrical symmetry is also presented.
The connection between quantized vortices and dark solitons in a long and thin, waveguide-like trap geometry is explored in the framework of the non-linear Schrödinger equation. Variation of the transverse confinement leads from the quasi-1D regime where solitons are stable to 2D (or 3D) confinement where soliton stripes are subject to a transverse modulational instability known as the ``snake instability''. We present numerical evidence of a regime of intermediate confinement where solitons decay into single, deformed vortices with solitonic properties, also called svortices, rather than vortex pairs as associated with the ``snake'' metaphor. Further relaxing the transverse confinement leads to production of 2 and then 3 vortices, which correlates perfectly with a Bogoliubov-de Gennes stability analysis. The decay of a stationary dark soliton (or, planar node) into a single svortex is predicted to be experimentally observable in a 3D harmonically confined dilute gas Bose-Einstein condensate.
We propose a simple stirring experiment to generate quantized ring currents and solitary excitations in Bose-Einstein condensates in a toroidal trap geometry. Simulations of the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation show that pure ring current states can be generated efficiently by adiabatic manipulation of the condensate, which can be realized on experimental time scales. This is illustrated by simulated generation of a ring current with winding number two. While solitons can be generated in quasi-1D tori, we show the even more robust generation of hybrid, solitonic vortices (svortices) in a regime of wider confinement. Svortices are vortices confined to essentially one-dimensional dynamics, which obey a similar phase-offset--velocity relationship as solitons. Marking the transition between solitons and vortices, svortices are a distinct class of symmetry-breaking stationary and uniformly rotating excited solutions of the 2D and 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a toroidal trapping potential. Svortices should be observable in dilute-gas experiments.
We derive a rigorous optical potential for electron-molecule scattering including the effects of nuclear dynamics by extending the common many-body Green's function approach to optical potentials beyond the fixed-nuclei limit for molecular targets. Our formalism treats the projectile electron and the nuclear motion of the target molecule on the same footing whereby the dynamical optical potential rigorously accounts for the complex many-body nature of the scattering target. One central result of the present work is that the common fixed-nuclei optical potential is a valid adiabatic approximation to the dynamical optical potential even when projectile and nuclear motion are (nonadiabatically) coupled as long as the scattering energy is well below the electronic excitation thresholds of the target. For extremely low projectile velocities, however, when the cross sections are most sensitive to the scattering potential, we expect the influences of the nuclear dynamics on the optical potential to become relevant. For these cases, a systematic way to improve the adiabatic approximation to the dynamical optical potential is presented that yields non-local operators with respect to the nuclear coordinates.
We present an approximation scheme for the calculation of the principal excitation energies and transition moments of finite many-body systems. The scheme is derived from a first order approximation to the self energy of a recently proposed extended particle-hole Green's function. A hermitian eigenvalue problem is encountered of the same size as the well-known Random Phase Approximation (RPA). We find that it yields a size consistent description of the excitation properties and removes an inconsistent treatment of the ground state correlation by the RPA. By presenting a hermitian eigenvalue problem the new scheme avoids the instabilities of the RPA and should be well suited for large scale numerical calculations. These and additional properties of the new approximation scheme are illuminated by a very simple exactly solvable model.
An extension of the fermionic particle--particle propagator is presented, that possesses similar algebraic properties to the single--particle Green's function. In particular, this extended two--particle Green's function satisfies Dyson's equation and its self energy has the same analytic structure as the the self energy of the single--particle Green's function. For the case of a system interacting by one--particle potentials only, the two--particle self energy takes on a particularly simple form, just like the common self energy does. The new two--particle self energy also serves as a well behaved optical potential for the elastic scattering of a two--particle projectile by a many--body target. Due to its analytic structure, the two--particle self energy avoids divergences that appear with effective potentials derived by other means.