arXiv subjects

Michiel Wouters

Publications and source records attributed to Michiel Wouters.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Unitary work extraction from a Generalized Gibbs Ensemble using Bragg scattering

We investigate work extraction from integrable quantum systems under unitary operations. As a model system, we consider non-interacting fermions in one dimension. Thanks to its integrability, this system does not thermalize after a perturbation, even though it does reach a steady state which can be described by a Generalized Gibbs Ensemble (GGE). Such a GGE has an excess free energy compared to a thermal state and we propose to extract this energy by applying Bragg pulses. We show how all the available work in the GGE can be extracted in the adiabatic limit while some excess energy is left at finite times. The unextracted work reaches the adiabatic limit as a power law with exponent $z=-2$ for small systems and with $z=-1$ in the thermodynamic limit. Two distinct protocols for combining the Bragg operations are compared, and in some systems an extensive difference in efficiency arises. From the unextracted work and the entropy production, a notion of temperature is defined and compared to the Boltzmann-Gibbs temperature of the system.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Optically bistable driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard dimer: Gutzwiller approaches and entanglement

We theoretically examine the driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard dimer in the optical bistable regime. Various approximation schemes based on a Gutzwiller mean field decoupling are applied and compared. Depending on the system parameters we show that a decoupling with respect to the real space or to the reciprocal space can be more accurate. The Gutzwiller decoupling is applied both at the level of the density matrix and for the wavefunction during a quantum trajectory simulation. The latter is shown to be a more accurate approximation. A Gaussian approximation for the non-homogeneous anti-bonding mode is also explored. We also show that entanglement in this system is witnessed by squeezing in reciprocal space.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Towards strongly correlated photons in arrays of dissipative nonlinear cavities under a frequency-dependent incoherent pumping

We report a theoretical study of a quantum optical model consisting of an array of strongly nonlinear cavities incoherently pumped by an ensemble of population-inverted two-level atoms. Projective methods are used to eliminate the atomic dynamics and write a generalized master equation for the photonic degrees of freedom only, where the frequency-dependence of gain introduces non-Markovian features. In the simplest single cavity configuration, this pumping scheme gives novel optical bistability effects and allows for the selective generation of Fock states with a well-defined photon number. For many cavities in a weakly non-Markovian limit, the non-equilibrium steady state recovers a Grand-Canonical statistical ensemble at a temperature determined by the effective atomic linewidth. For a two-cavity system in the strongly nonlinear regime, signatures of a Mott state with one photon per cavity are found.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Stochastic precession of the polarization in a polariton laser

Microcavity polaritons in the lasing regime undergo a spontaneous symmetry breaking transition resulting in coherent emission with a well defined polarization. The order parameter is thus a vector describing both the laser global phase and polarization. Using an ultrafast single-shot detection technique we show that polariton lasing in GaAs-based microcavities presents a high degree of second order coherence ($g^{(2)}(τ=0) \approx 1$) above threshold, and that the initial polarization is stochastic, taking any possible direction in the Poincaré sphere (linear, elliptical or circular). Once the polarization direction is established, subsequent oscillations of the emission probability witness the presence of an intrinsic polarization splitting. Our results show the negligible role of polariton interactions in the total emission statistics and in the establishment of the initial polarization.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Quantum statistical gravity: time dilation due to local information in many-body quantum systems

We propose a generic mechanism for the emergence of a gravitational potential that acts on all classical objects in a quantum system. Our conjecture is based on the analysis of mutual information in many-body quantum systems. Since measurements in quantum systems affect the surroundings through entanglement, a measurement at one position reduces the entropy in its neighbourhood. This reduction in entropy can be described by a local temperature, that is directly related to the gravitational potential. A crucial ingredient in our argument is that ideal classical mechanical motion occurs at constant probability. This definition is motivated by the analysis of entropic forces in classical systems, which can be formally rewritten in terms of a gravitational potential.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Normal and superfluid fractions of inhomogeneous nonequilibrium quantum fluids

We present a theoretical analysis of the normal and superfluid fractions of quantum fluids described by a nonequilibrium extension of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the presence of an external potential. Both disordered and regular potentials are considered. The normal and superfluid fractions are defined by the response of the nonequilibrium quantum fluid to a vector potential, in analogy with the equilibrium case. We find that the physical meaning of these definitions breaks down out of equilibrium. The normal and superfluid fractions no longer add up to one and for some types of external potentials, they can even become negative.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Information propagation and equilibration in long-range Kitaev chains

We study the propagation of information through a Kitaev chain with long-range pairing interactions. Although the Lieb-Robinson bound is violated in the strict sense for long-range interacting systems, we illustrate that a major amount of information in this model still propagates ballistically on a light cone. We find a pronounced effect of the interaction range on the decay of the mutual information between spatially disconnected subsystems. A significant amount of information is shared at time-like separations. This regime is accompanied by very slow equilibration of local observables. As the Kitaev model is quasi-free, we illustrate how the distribution of quasi-particle group velocities explains the physics of this system qualitatively.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

Dynamical quantum depletion in polariton condensates

We present a theoretical study of the quantum depletion of microcavity polaritons that are excited with a resonant laser pulse. The dynamics of the quantum fluctuations are interpreted in the context of quantum quenches in general and in terms of the dynamical Casimir effect in particular. We compute the time evolution of the first and second order correlation functions of the polariton condensate. Our theoretical modelling is based on the truncated Wigner approximation for interacting Bose gases. For homogeneous systems, analytical results are obtained in the linearised Bogoliubov approximation. Inhomogeneous systems are studied numerically by Monte Carlo simulations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

The thermodynamics of time

The problem of time is a deep paradox in our physical description of the world. According to Aristotle's relational theory, time is a measure of change and does not exist on its own. In contrast, quantum mechanics, just like Newtonian mechanics, is equipped with a master clock that dictates the evolution of a system. This clock is infinitely precise and tacitly supplied free of charge from outside physics. Not only does this absolute time make it notoriously difficult to make a consistent theory of quantum gravity, it is also the underlying problem in establishing the second law. Indeed, contrary to our experience, the Wheeler-deWitt equation --a canonical quantization of general relativity-- predicts a static universe. Similarly, when simply concerned with the dynamics of a closed quantum system, there is no second law because the Von Neumann entropy is invariant under unitary transformations. Here we are mainly concerned with the latter problem and we show that it can be resolved by attributing a minimal amount of resources to the measurement of time. Although there is an absolute time in quantum mechanics, an observer can only establish a time by measuring a clock. For a local measurement, the minimal entropy production is equal to the number of ticks. This lower bound is attained by a black hole.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Many-body effects of a two-dimensional electron gas on trion-polaritons

We theoretically investigate the trion-polariton and the effects of a two-dimensional electron gas on its single particle properties. Focussing on the trion and exciton transitions, we set up an effective model and calculate the optical absorption of the quantum well containing the 2DEG. Including the light-matter coupling, we compute the Rabi splitting and polariton lineshapes as a function of 2DEG density. The role of finite temperature is investigated. The spatial extent of the trion-polariton is also calculated. We find a substantial charge build-up at short distances as long as the Rabi frequency does not exceed the trion binding energy. All our calculations take into account the Fermi-edge singularity and the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Stationary ensemble approximations of dynamic quantum states: Optimizing the Generalized Gibbs Ensemble

We reconsider the non-equilibrium dynamics of closed quantum systems. In particular we focus on the thermalization of integrable systems. Here we show how the generalized Gibbs Ensemble (GGE) can be constructed as the best approximation to the time dependent density matrix. Our procedure allows for a systematic construction of the GGE by a constrained minimization of the distance between the latter and the true state. Moreover, we show that the entropy of the GGE is a direct measure for the quality of the approximation. We apply our method to a quenched hard core bose gas. In contrast to the standard GGE, our correlated GGE properly describes the higher order correlation functions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Temporal coherence of one-dimensional non-equilibrium quantum fluids

We theoretically investigate the time dependence of the first order coherence function for a one-dimensional driven dissipative non-equilibrium condensate. Simulations on the generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GGPE) show that the characteristic time scale of exponential decay agrees with the linearized Bogoliubov theory in the regime of large interaction energy. For very weak interactions, the temporal correlation deviates from the linear theory, and instead respects the dynamic scaling of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. This nonlinear dynamics is found to be quantitatively captured by a noisy Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation for the phase dynamics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Quantum equivalence, the second law and emergent gravity

Since the advent of quantum mechanics we have mainly been concerned with its predictions from the perspective of an external observer. This is in strong contrast to the theory of general relativity, where the physics is governed by the intrinsic properties of space-time. At the same time, the precise relation between space-time and quantum mechanics is still one of the greatest problems of theoretical physics. This immediately raises the question on the completeness of our understanding of quantum mechanics. Here we address the problem by making an intrinsic analysis of observables in generic quantum systems. We show that there is an extreme fine tuning problem for the emergence of physics from the Hilbert space dynamics. However, for any initial condition and Hamiltonian, there exists a special set of observables. We show that these observables are intimately linked to the natural configuration space in which an area law for the entanglement is inevitable. We argue that this implies emergent gravity.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Polaritonic Feshbach Resonance

A Feshbach resonance occurs when the energy of two interacting free particles comes to resonance with a molecular bound state. When approaching this resonance, dramatic changes in the interaction strength between the particles occur. Feshbach resonances have been an essential tool to control the atom interactions, which can even be switched from repulsive to attractive [1-4]. Thanks to Feshbach resonances many effects in ultracold atomic gases could be explored [5, 6]. Here we demonstrate a Feshbach resonance based on polariton spinor interactions that characterize the fundamental interaction process in polariton quantum systems. We show the clear enhancement of attractive interactions and the prompt change to repulsive interaction by tuning the energy of two polaritons with anti-parallel spins across the biexciton bound state energy. A mean field two-channel model quantitatively reproduces the experimental results. This observation paves the way for a new tool to tune the polariton interactions and to move forward into quantum correlated polariton physics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Heterodyne Spectroscopy of Polariton Spinor Interactions

We report on spinor polariton interactions in GaAs based microcavities. This investigation is carried out by means of heterodyne polarized pump-probe spectroscopy. We show the dependence of the energy renormalization of the lower and upper polariton resonances with cavity detuning for different polariton densities. We use the exciton-photon based Gross-Pitaevskii equation to model the experiment for both lower and upper polariton modes. The theoretical results reproduce qualitatively the experimental observations revealing the magnitude and the sign of the parallel and anti-parallel spin interaction strength. We evidence the strong influence of the biexciton resonance on the anti-parallel spin polariton energy shift and provide the exciton-biexciton coupling constant. We derive our results in the lower polariton basis using Gross-Pitaevskii equation from which, we express analytically the spinor polariton interactions and identify the clear role of the biexciton resonance.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Polaron formation in the vicinity of a narrow Feshbach resonance in atomic and exciton-polariton condensates

The polaronic system consisting of an impurity in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate is considered in the presence of a narrow Feshbach resonance. For this purpose a coupled-channel model is used, which at the mean field level predicts the formation of quasiparticles that are a superposition of the impurity and the molecular states. The impurity-boson interactions and the coupling between the open and closed channels are then considered weak and a perturbative calculation of the corrections to the mean field results is presented. This allows to examine the properties of the quasiparticles, such as the lifetime and the effective mass. The model is applied to two physical systems: an impurity atom in a Bose-condensed atomic gas in 3D and a spin down lower polariton in a Bose-Einstein condensate of spin up lower polaritons in 2D. The model parameters are linked to the physical parameters by identifying the low energy T-matrix and applying a proper renormalization scheme.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Measurement theory for closed quantum systems

We introduce the concept of a "classical observable" as an operator with vanishingly small quantum fluctuations on a set of density matrices. It is shown how to construct them for a time evolved pure state. The study of classical observables provides a natural starting point to analyse the quantum measurement problem. In particular, it allows to identify Schrödinger cats and the associated projection operators intrinsically, without the need to invoke an environment. We discuss how our new approach relates to the open system analysis of the quantum measurement problem.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Single particle polariton properties in doped quantum well microcavities: role of the Fermi edge singularity and Anderson orthogonality catastrophe

A theoretical investigation of the single particle polariton properties for a microcavity embedding a charged quantum well is presented. The electron gas optical susceptibility is calculated numerically using the method devised by Combescot and Nozières. The role of many-body effects, such as the Fermi edge singularity and Anderson orthogonality catastrophe, in the polariton formation is elucidated. By tuning the light-matter coupling the short time behaviour of the electron gas response function is probed and comparison with earlier results only using the long time response are made. Various single particle polariton properties such as the Rabi splitting, line shape, Hopfield coefficients and effective mass are discussed. These are experimentally accessible quantities and thus allow for a comparison with the presented theory.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗