arXiv subjects

Nils B. Jørgensen

Publications and source records attributed to Nils B. Jørgensen.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Life and death of the Bose polaron

Spectroscopic and interferometric measurements complement each other in extracting the fundamental properties of quantum many-body systems. While spectroscopy provides precise measurements of equilibrated energies, interferometry can elucidate the dynamical evolution of the system. For an impurity immersed in a bosonic medium, both are equally important for understanding the quasiparticle physics of the Bose polaron. Here, we compare the interferometric and spectroscopic timescales to the underlying dynamical regimes of the impurity dynamics and the polaron lifetime, highlighting the capability of the interferometric approach to clearly resolve polaron dynamics. In particular, interferometric measurements of the coherence amplitude at strong interactions reveal faster quantum dynamics at large repulsive interaction strengths than at unitarity. These observations are in excellent agreement with a short-time theoretical prediction including both the continuum and the attractive polaron branch. For longer times, qualitative agreement with a many-body theoretical prediction which includes both branches is obtained. Moreover, the polaron energy is extracted from interferometric measurements of the observed phase velocity in agreement with previous spectroscopic results from weak to strong attractive interactions. Finally, the phase evolution allows for the measurement of an energetic equilibration timescale, describing the initial approach of the phase velocity to the polaron energy. Theoretically, this is shown to lie within the regime of universal dynamics revealing a fast initial evolution towards the formation of polarons. Our results give a comprehensive picture of the many-body physics governing the Bose polaron and thus validates the quasiparticle framework for further studies.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Observation of a Lee-Huang-Yang Fluid

We observe monopole oscillations in a mixture of Bose-Einstein condensates, where the usually dominant mean-field interactions are canceled. In this case, the system is governed by the next-order Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) correction to the ground state energy, which describes the effect of quantum fluctuations. Experimentally such a LHY fluid is realized by controlling the atom numbers and interaction strengths in a $^{39}$K spin mixture confined in a spherical trap potential. We measure the monopole oscillation frequency as a function of the LHY interaction strength as proposed recently by Jørgensen et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 173403 (2018)] and find excellent agreement with simulations of the complete experiment including the excitation procedure and inelastic losses. This confirms that the system and its collective behavior are initially dominated by LHY interactions. Moreover, the monopole oscillation frequency is found to be stable against variations of the involved scattering lengths in a broad region around the ideal values, confirming the stabilizing effect of the LHY interaction. These results pave the way for using the non-linearity provided by the LHY term in quantum simulation experiments and for investigations beyond the LHY regime.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Non-equilibrium quantum dynamics and formation of the Bose polaron

Advancing our understanding of non-equilibrium phenomena in quantum many-body systems remains among the greatest challenges in physics. Here, we report on the experimental observation of a paradigmatic many-body problem, namely the non-equilibrium dynamics of a quantum impurity immersed in a bosonic environment. We use an interferometric technique to prepare coherent superposition states of atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate with a small impurity-state component, and monitor the evolution of such quantum superpositions into polaronic quasiparticles. These results offer a systematic picture of polaron formation from weak to strong impurity interactions. They reveal three distinct regimes of evolution with dynamical transitions that provide a link between few-body processes and many-body dynamics. Our measurements reveal universal dynamical behavior in interacting many-body systems and demonstrate new pathways to study non-equilibrium quantum phenomena.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Temperature dependence of an Efimov resonance in $^{39}\mathrm{K}$

Ultracold atomic gases are an important testing ground for understanding few-body physics. In particular, these systems enable a detailed study of the Efimov effect. We use ultracold $^{39}\mathrm{K}$ to investigate the temperature dependence of an Efimov resonance. The shape and position of the observed resonance are analyzed by employing an empirical fit, and universal finite-temperature zero-range theory. Both procedures suggest that the resonance position shifts towards lower absolute scattering lengths when approaching the zero-temperature limit. We extrapolate this shift to obtain an estimate of the three-body parameter at zero temperature. A surprising finding of our study is that the resonance becomes less prominent at lower temperatures, which currently lacks a theoretical description and implies physical effects beyond available models. Finally, we present measurements performed near the Feshbach resonance center and discuss the prospects for observing the second Efimov resonance in $^{39}\mathrm{K}$.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Dilute Fluid Governed by Quantum Fluctuations

Understanding the effects of interactions in complex quantum systems beyond the mean-field paradigm constitutes a fundamental problem in physics. Here, we show how the atom numbers and interactions in a Bose-Bose mixture can be tuned to cancel mean-field interactions completely. The resulting system is entirely governed by quantum fluctuations -- specifically the Lee-Huang-Yang correlations. We derive an effective one-component Gross-Pitaevskii equation for this system, which is shown to be very accurate by comparison with a full two-component description. This allows us to show how the Lee-Huang-Yang correlation energy can be accurately measured using two powerful probes of atomic gases: collective excitations and radio-frequency spectroscopy. Importantly, the behavior of the system is robust against deviations from the atom number and interaction criteria for canceling the mean-field interactions. This shows that it is feasible to realize a setting where quantum fluctuations are not masked by mean-field forces, allowing investigations of the Lee-Huang-Yang correction at unprecedented precision.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Time-of-flight expansion of binary Bose-Einstein condensates at finite temperature

Ultracold quantum gases provide a unique setting for studying and understanding the properties of interacting quantum systems. Here, we investigate a multi-component system of $^{87}$Rb--$^{39}$K Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with tunable interactions both theoretically and experimentally. Such multi-component systems can be characterized by their miscibility, where miscible components lead to a mixed ground state and immiscible components form a phase-separated state. Here we perform the first full simulation of the dynamical expansion of this system including both BECs and thermal clouds, which allows for a detailed comparison with experimental results. In particular we show that striking features emerge in time-of-flight for BECs with strong interspecies repulsion, even for systems which were separated in situ by a large gravitational sag. An analysis of the center of mass positions of the BECs after expansion yields qualitative agreement with the homogeneous criterion for phase-separation, but reveals no clear transition point between the mixed and the separated phases. Instead one can identify a transition region, for which the presence of a gravitational sag is found to be advantageous. Moreover we analyze the situation where only one component is condensed and show that the density distribution of the thermal component also show some distinct features. Our work sheds new light on the analysis of multi-component systems after time-of-flight and will guide future experiments on the detection of miscibility in these systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Observation of Attractive and Repulsive Polarons in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

The problem of an impurity particle moving through a bosonic medium plays a fundamental role in physics. However, the canonical scenario of a mobile impurity immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) has not yet been realized. Here, we use radio frequency spectroscopy of ultracold bosonic $^{39}$K atoms to experimentally demonstrate the existence of a well-defined quasiparticle state of an impurity interacting with a BEC. We measure the energy of the impurity both for attractive and repulsive interactions, and find excellent agreement with theories that incorporate three-body correlations, both in the weak-coupling limits and across unitarity. The spectral response consists of a well-defined quasiparticle peak at weak coupling, while for increasing interaction strength, the spectrum is strongly broadened and becomes dominated by the many-body continuum of excited states. Crucially, no significant effects of three-body decay are observed. Our results open up exciting prospects for studying mobile impurities in a bosonic environment and strongly interacting Bose systems in general.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Phase Separation and Dynamics of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates

The miscibility of two interacting quantum systems is an important testing ground for the understanding of complex quantum systems. Two-component Bose-Einstein condensates enable the investigation of this scenario in a particularly well controlled setting. In a homogeneous system, the transition between mixed and separated phases is fully characterised by a `miscibility parameter', based on the ratio of intra- to inter-species interaction strengths. Here we show, however, that this parameter is no longer the optimal one for trapped gases, for which the location of the phase boundary depends critically on atom numbers. We demonstrate how monitoring of damping rates and frequencies of dipole oscillations enables the experimental mapping of the phase diagram by numerical implementation of a fully self-consistent finite-temperature kinetic theory for binary condensates. The change in damping rate is explained in terms of surface oscillation in the immiscible regime, and counterflow instability in the miscible regime, with collisions becoming only important in the long time evolution.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

A simple laser locking system based on a field-programmable gate array

Frequency stabilization of laser light is crucial in both scientific and industrial applications. Technological developments now allow analog laser stabilization systems to be replaced with digital electronics such as field-programmable gate arrays, which have recently been utilized to develop such locking systems. We have developed a frequency stabilization system based on a field-programmable gate array, with emphasis on hardware simplicity, which offers a user-friendly alternative to commercial and previous home-built solutions. Frequency modulation, lock-in detection and a proportional-integral-derivative controller are programmed on the field-programmable gate array and only minimal additional components are required to frequency stabilize a laser. The locking system is administered from a host-computer which provides comprehensive, long-distance control through a versatile interface. Various measurements were performed to characterize the system. The linewidth of the locked laser was measured to be $0.7 \pm 0.1 \; \rm{MHz}$ with a settling time of $10 \; \rm{ms}$. The system can thus fully match laser systems currently in use for atom trapping and cooling applications.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2014

Single- and two-qubit quantum gates using superimposed optical lattice potentials

Steps towards implementing a collision based two-qubit gate in optical lattices have previously been realized by the parallel merging all pairs of atoms in a periodicity two superlattice. In contrast, we propose an architecture which allows for the merger of a selected qubit pair in a novel long-periodicity superlattice structure consisting of two optical lattices with close-lying periodicity. We numerically optimize the gate time and fidelity, including the effects on neighboring atoms, and in the presence of experimental sources of error. Furthermore, the superlattice architecture induces a differential hyperfine shift, allowing for single-qubit gates. The fastest possible single-qubit gate times, given a maximal tolerable rotation error on the remaining atoms at various values of the lattice wavelengths, are identified. We find that robust single- and two-qubit gates with gate times of a few 100~$μ$s and with error probabilities $\sim{}10^{-3}$ are possible.

quant-ph↗