arXiv subjects

L. Salasnich

Publications and source records attributed to L. Salasnich.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Finite-Range Corrections to the Thermodynamics of the One-Dimensional Bose Gas

The Lieb-Liniger equation of state accurately describes the zero-temperature universal properties of a dilute one-dimensional Bose gas in terms of the s-wave scattering length. For weakly-interacting bosons we derive non-universal corrections to this equation of state taking into account finite-range effects of the inter-atomic potential. Within the finite-temperature formalism of functional integration we find a beyond-mean-field equation of state which depends on scattering length and effective range of the interaction potential. Our analytical results, which are obtained performing dimensional regularization of divergent zero-point quantum fluctuations, show that for the one-dimensional Bose gas thermodynamic quantities like pressure and sound velocity are modified by changing the ratio between the effective range and the scattering length.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Bright solitons in ultracold atoms

We review old and recent experimental and theoretical results on bright solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates made of alkali-metal atoms and under external optical confinement. First we deduce the three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation (3D GPE) from the Dirac-Frenkel action of interacting identical bosons within a time-dependent Hartree approximation. Then we discuss the dimensional reduction of the GPE from 3D to 1D, deriving the 1D GPE and also the 1D nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation (1D NPSE). Finally, we analyze the bright solition solutions of both 1D GPE and 1D NPSE and compare these theoretical predictions with the available experimental data.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Renormalization of the superfluid density in the two-dimensional BCS-BEC crossover

We analyze the theoretical derivation of the beyond-mean-field equation of state for a two-dimensional gas of dilute, ultracold alkali-metal atoms in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover. We show that at zero temperature our theory -- considering Gaussian fluctuations on top of the mean-field equation of state -- is in very good agreement with experimental data. Subsequently, we investigate the superfluid density at finite temperature and its renormalization due to the proliferation of vortex-antivortex pairs. By doing so, we determine the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) critical temperature -- at which the renormalized superfluid density jumps to zero -- as a function of the inter-atomic potential strength. We find that the Nelson-Kosterlitz criterion overestimates the BKT temperature with respect to the renormalization group equations, this effect being particularly relevant in the intermediate regime of the crossover.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Goldstone and Higgs Hydrodynamics in the BCS-BEC Crossover

We discuss the derivation of a low-energy effective field theory of phase (Goldstone) and amplitude (Higgs) modes of the pairing field from a microscopic theory of attractive fermions. The coupled equations for Goldstone and Higgs fields are critically analyzed in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover both in three spatial dimensions and in two spatial dimensions. The crucial role of pair fluctuations is investigated, and the beyond-mean-field Gaussian theory of the BCS-BEC crossover is compared with available experimental data of the two-dimensional ultracold Fermi superfluid.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Itinerant ferromagnetism of two-dimensional repulsive fermions with Rabi coupling

We study a two-dimensional fermionic cloud of repulsive alkali-metal atoms characterized by two hyperfine states which are Rabi coupled. Within a variational Hartree-Fock scheme, we calculate analytically the ground-state energy of the system. Then we determine the conditions under which there is a quantum phase transition with spontaneous symmetry breaking from a spin-balanced configuration to a spin-polarized one, an effect known as itinerant ferromagnetism. Interestingly, we find that the transition appears when the interaction energy per particle exceedes both the kinetic energy per particle and the Rabi coupling energy. The itinerant ferromagnetism of the polarized phase is analyzed, obtaining the population imbalance as a function of interaction strength, Rabi coupling, and number density. Finally, the inclusion of a external harmonic confinement is investigated by adopting the local density approximation. We predict that a single atomic cloud can display population imbalance near the center of the trap and a fully balanced configuration at the periphery.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Non-Universal Equation of State of the Two-Dimensional Bose Gas

For a dilute two-dimensional Bose gas the universal equation of state has a logarithmic dependence on the s-wave scattering length. Here we derive non-universal corrections to this equation of state taking account finite-range effects of the inter-atomic potential. Our beyond-mean-field analytical results are obtained performing dimensional regularization of divergent zero-point quantum fluctuations within the finite-temperature formalism of functional integration. In particular, we find that in the grand canonical ensemble the pressure has a nonpolynomial dependence on the finite- range parameter and it is a highly nontrivial function of chemical potential and temperature.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Vortices and antivortices in two-dimensional ultracold Fermi gases

Vortices are commonly observed in the context of classical hydrodynamics: from whirlpools after stirring the coffee in a cup to a violent atmospheric phenomenon such as a tornado, all classical vortices are characterized by an arbitrary circulation value of the local velocity field. On the other hand the appearance of vortices with quantized circulation represents one of the fundamental signatures of macroscopic quantum phenomena. In two-dimensional superfluids quantized vortices play a key role in determining finite-temperature properties, as the superfluid phase and the normal state are separated by a vortex unbinding transition, the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Very recent experiments with two-dimensional superfluid fermions motivate the present work: we present theoretical results based on the renormalization group showing that the universal jump of the superfluid density and the critical temperature crucially depend on the interaction strength, providing a strong benchmark for forthcoming investigations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Thermal field theory of bosonic gases with finite-range effective interaction

We study a dilute and ultracold Bose gas of interacting atoms by using an effective field theory which takes account finite-range effects of the inter-atomic potential. Within the formalism of functional integration from the grand canonical partition function we derive beyond-mean-field analytical results which depend on both scattering length and effective range of the interaction. In particular, we calculate the equation of state of the bosonic system as a function of these interaction parameters both at zero and finite temperature including one-loop Gaussian fluctuation. In the case of zero-range effective interaction we explicitly show that, due to quantum fluctuations, the bosonic system is thermodynamically stable only for very small values of the gas parameter. We find that a positive effective range above a critical threshold is necessary to remove the thermodynamical instability of the uniform configuration. Remarkably, also for relatively large values of the gas parameter, our finite-range results are in quite good agreement with recent zero-temperature Monte Carlo calculations obtained with hard-sphere bosons.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Quantum fluctuations and vortex-antivortex unbinding in the 2D BCS-BEC crossover

Very recently quasi two-dimensional (2D) systems made of attractive fermionic alkali-metal atoms with a widely tunable interaction due to Fano-Feshbach resonances have been realized. In this way it has been achieved the 2D crossover from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer regime of weakly-interacting Cooper pairs to the Bose-Einstein condensate regime strongly bound dimers. These experiments pave the way to the investigation of 2D strongly-interacting attractive fermions during the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition from a low-temperature superfluid phase characterized by quasi-condensation to a high-temperature normal phase, where vortex proliferation driven by quantum and thermal fluctuations completely destroys superfluidity. In this paper we discuss our preliminar theoretical results on the behavior of the BKT critical temperature across the crossover. Our microscopic calculations are based on functional integration taking into account renormalized Gaussian fluctuations and the crucial 2D effect of vortex-antivortex unbinding.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Diffusive Limits of the Master Equation in Inhomogeneous Media

Diffusion is the macroscopic manifestation of disordered molecular motion. Mathematically, diffusion equations are partial differential equations describing the fluid-like large-scale dynamics of parcels of molecules. Spatially inhomogeneous systems affect in a position-dependent way the average motion of molecules; thus, diffusion equations have to reflect somehow this fact within their structure. It is known since long that in this case an ambiguity arises: there are several ways of writing down diffusion equations containing space dependence within their parameters. These ways are all potentially valid but not equivalent, meaning that the different diffusion equations yield different solutions for the same data. The ambiguity can only be resolved at the microscopic level: a model for the stochastic dynamics of the individual molecules must be provided, and a well-defined diffusion equation then arises as the long-wavelength limit of this dynamics. In this work we introduce and employ the integro-differential Master Equation (ME) as a tool for describing the microscopic dynamics. We show that is possible to provide a parameterized version of the ME, in terms of a single numerical parameter (alpha), such that the different expressions for the diffusive fluxes are recovered at different values of alpha. This work aims to fill a gap in the literature, where the ME was shown to deliver just one diffusive limit. In the second part of the paper some numerical computer models are introduced, both to support analytical considerations, and to extend the scope of the ME to more sophisticated scenarios, beyond the simplest alpha-parameterization.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2016

Zero-point energy of ultracold atoms

We analyze the divergent zero-point energy of a dilute and ultracold gas of atoms in D spatial dimensions. For bosonic atoms we explicitly show how to regularize this divergent contribution, which appears in the Gaussian fluctuations of the functional integration, by using three different regularization approaches: dimensional regularization, momentum-cutoff regularization and convergence-factor regularization. In the case of the ideal Bose gas the divergent zero-point fluctuations are completely removed, while in the case of the interacting Bose gas these zero-point fluctuations give rise to a finite correction to the equation of state. The final convergent equation of state is independent of the regularization procedure but depends on the dimensionality of the system and the two-dimensional case is highly nontrivial. We also discuss very recent theoretical results on the divergent zero-point energy of the D-dimensional superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover. In this case the zero-point energy is due to both fermionic single-particle excitations and bosonic collective excitations, and its regularization gives remarkable analytical results in the BEC regime of composite bosons. We compare the beyond-mean-field equations of state of both bosons and fermions with relevant experimental data on dilute and ultracold atoms quantitatively confirming the contribution of zero-point-energy quantum fluctuations to the thermodynamics of ultracold atoms at very low temperatures.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Nonequilibrium Kinetics of One-Dimensional Bose Gases

We study cold dilute gases made of bosonic atoms, showing that in the mean-field one-dimensional regime they support stable out-of-equilibrium states. Starting from the 3D Boltzmann-Vlasov equation with contact interaction, we derive an effective 1D Landau-Vlasov equation under the condition of a strong transverse harmonic confinement. We investigate the existence of out-of-equilibrium states, obtaining stability criteria similar to those of classical plasmas.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Localized-Interaction-Induced Quantum Reflection and Filtering of Bosonic Matter in a One-Dimensional Lattice Guide

We study the dynamics of quantum bosonic waves confined in a one-dimensional tilted optical lattice. The bosons are under the action of an effective spatially localized nonlinear two-body potential barrier set in the central part of the lattice. This version of the Bose-Hubbard model can be realized in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, by means of localized Feshbach resonance, and in quantum optics, using an arrayed waveguide with selectively doped guiding cores. Our numerical analysis demonstrates that the central barrier induces anomalous quantum reflection of incident wave packets acting solely on bosonic components with multiple onsite occupancies. From the other side single-occupancy components can pass the barrier thus allowing one to distill them in the central interacting zone. As a consequence, in this region one finds a state in which the multiple occupancy is forbidden, i.e., a Tonks-Girardeau gas. Our results demonstrate that this regime can be obtained dynamically, using relatively weak interactions, irrespective of their sign.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Dimensional reduction and localization of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a quasi-1D bichromatic optical lattice

We analyze the localization of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a one-dimensional bichromatic quasi-periodic optical-lattice potential by numerically solving the 1D Gross-Pitaevskii equation (1D GPE). We first derive the 1D GPE from the dimensional reduction of the 3D quantum field theory of interacting bosons obtaining two coupled differential equations (for axial wavefuction and space-time dependent transverse width) which reduce to the 1D GPE under strict conditions. Then, by using the 1D GPE we report the suppression of localization in the interacting BEC when the repulsive scattering length between bosonic atoms is sufficiently large.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Finite-temperature quantum fluctuations in two-dimensional Fermi superfluids

In two-dimensional systems with a continuous symmetry the Mermin-Wagner-Hohenberg theorem precludes spontaneous symmetry breaking and condensation at finite temperature. The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless critical temperature marks the transition from a superfluid phase characterized by quasi-condensation and algebraic long-range order to a normal phase, where vortex proliferation completely destroys superfluidity. As opposed to conventional off-diagonal long-range order typical of three-dimensional superfluid systems, algebraic long-range order is driven by quantum and thermal fluctuations strongly enhanced in reduced dimensionality. Motivated by this unique scenario and by the very recent experimental realization of trapped quasi-two-dimensional fermionic clouds, we include one-loop Gaussian fluctuations in the theoretical description of resonant Fermi superfluids in two dimensions demonstrating that first sound, second sound and also critical temperature are strongly renormalized, away from their mean-field values. In particular, we prove that in the intermediate and strong coupling regimes these quantities are radically different when Gaussian fluctuations are taken into account. Our one-loop theory shows good agreement with very recent experimental data on the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless critical temperature [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 010401 (2015)] and on the first sound velocity, giving novel predictions for the second sound as a function of interaction strength and temperature, open for experimental verification.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Reliable equation of state for composite bosons in the 2D BCS-BEC crossover

We briefly discuss recent experiments on the BCS-BEC crossover with ultracold alkali-metal atoms both in three-dimensional configurations and two-dimensional ones. Then we analyze the quantum-field-theory formalism used to describe an attractive $D$-dimensional Fermi gas taking into account Gaussian fluctuations. Finally, we apply this formalism to obtain a reliable equation of state of the 2D system at low temperaratures in the BEC regime of the crossover by performing a meaningful dimensional regularization of the divergent zero-point energy of collective bosonic excitations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Photon-induced Self Trapping and Entanglement of a Bosonic Josephson Junction Inside an Optical Resonator

We study the influence of photons on the dynamics and the ground state of the atoms in a Bosonic Josephson junction inside an optical resonator. The system is engineered in such a way that the atomic tunneling can be tuned by changing the number of photons in the cavity. In this setup the cavity photons are a new means of control, which can be utilized both in inducing self-trapping solutions and in driving the crossover of the ground state from an atomic coherent state to a Schrödinger's cat state. This is achieved, for suitable setup configurations, with interatomic interactions weaker than those required in the absence of cavity. This is corroborated by the study of the entanglement entropy. In the presence of a laser, this quantum indicator attains its maximum value (which marks the formation of the cat-like state and, at a semiclassical level, the onset of self-trapping) for attractions smaller than those of the bare junction.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Beliaev damping of the Goldstone mode in atomic Fermi superfluids

Beliaev damping in a superfluid is the decay of a collective excitation into two lower frequency collective excitations; it represents the only decay mode for a bosonic collective excitation in a superfluid at T = 0. The standard treatment for this decay assumes a linear spectrum, which in turn implies that the final state momenta must be collinear to the initial state. We extend this treatment, showing that the inclusion of a gradient term in the Hamiltonian yields a realistic spectrum for the bosonic excitations; we then derive a formula for the decay rate of such excitations, and show that even moderate nonlinearities in the spectrum can yield substantial deviations from the standard result. We apply our result to an attractive Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover: here the low-energy bosonic collective excitations are density oscillations driven by the phase of the pairing order field. These collective excitations, which are gapless modes as a consequence of the Goldstone mechanism, have a spectrum which is well established both theoretically and experimentally, and whose linewidth, we show, is determined at low temperatures by the Beliaev decay mechanism.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗