arXiv subjects

O. Fialko

Publications and source records attributed to O. Fialko.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2015

Quantum Heat Baths satisfying the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis

A class of autonomous quantum heat baths satisfying the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) criteria is proposed. We show that such systems are expected to cause thermal relaxation of much smaller quantum systems coupled to one of the baths local observables. The process of thermalization is examined through residual fluctuations of local observables of the bath around their thermal values predicted by ETH. It is shown that such fluctuations perturb the small quantum system causing its decoherence to the thermal state. As an example, we investigate theoretically and numerically thermalization of a qubit coupled to a realistic ETH quantum heat bath.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Fate of the false vacuum: towards realization with ultra-cold atoms

Quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a false vacuum is a fundamental idea in quantum field theory. It is relevant to models of the early Universe, where the nucleation of bubbles gives rise to an inflationary universe and the creation of matter. Here we propose a laboratory test using an experimental model of an ultra-cold spinor Bose gas. A false vacuum for the relative phase of two spin components, serving as the unstable scalar field, is generated by means of a modulated radio-frequency coupling of the spin components. Numerical simulations demonstrate the spontaneous formation of true vacuum bubbles with realistic parameters and time-scales.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Decoherence via coupling to a finite quantum heat bath

Decoherence of a quantum state coupled to an exterior environment is at the foundation of our understanding of the emergence of classical behavior from the quantum world, but how does it emerge in a finite closed quantum system? Here this is studied by modeling an isolated quantum system of a handful of ultracold atoms confined to a double well potential and coupled to a single atom of a different type. The ultracold atoms thermalize and serve as an environmental bath for the single atom. We observe accelerated decoherence of the single atom when ultracold atoms have thermalized. This is explained by the emergence of chaotic eigenstates in the thermalized system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Fragility of the fractional quantum spin Hall effect in quantum gases

We consider the effect of contact interaction in a prototypical quantum spin Hall system of pseudo-spin-1/2 particles. A strong effective magnetic field with opposite directions for the two spin states restricts two-dimensional particle motion to the lowest Landau level. While interaction between same-spin particles leads to incompressible correlated states at fractional filling factors as known from the fractional quantum Hall effect, these states are destabilized by interactions between opposite spin particles. Exact results for two particles with opposite spin reveal a quasi-continuous spectrum of extended states with a large density of states at low energy. This has implications for the prospects of realizing the fractional quantum spin Hall effect in electronic or ultra-cold atom systems. Numerical diagonalization is used to extend the two-particle results to many bosonic particles and trapped systems. The interplay between an external trapping potential and spin-dependent interactions is shown to open up new possibilities for engineering exotic correlated many-particle states with ultra-cold atoms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Soliton Magnetization Dynamics in Spin-Orbit Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates

Ring-trapped Bose-Einstein condensates subject to spin-orbit coupling support localized dark soliton excitations that show periodic density dynamics in real space. In addition to the density feature, solitons also carry a localized pseudo-spin magnetization that exhibits a rich and tunable dynamics. Analytic results for Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling and spin-invariant interactions predict a conserved magnitude and precessional motion for the soliton magnetization that allows for the simulation of spin-related geometric phases recently seen in electronic transport measurements.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Isolated quantum heat engine

We present a theoretical and numerical analysis of a quantum system that is capable of functioning as a heat engine. This system could be realized experimentally using cold bosonic atoms confined to a double well potential that is created by splitting a harmonic trap with a focused laser. The system shows thermalization, and can model a reversible heat engine cycle. This is the first demonstration of the operation of a heat engine with a finite quantum heat bath.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

The decay and collisions of dark solitons in superfluid Fermi gases

We study soliton collisions and the decay of solitons into sound in superfluid Fermi gases across the Bose-Einstein condensate to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BEC-BCS) crossover by performing numerical simulations of the time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. This decay process occurs when the solitons are accelerated to the bulk pair-breaking speed by an external potential. A similar decay process may occur when solitons are accelerated by an inelastic collision with another soliton. We find that soliton collisions become increasingly inelastic as we move from the BEC to BCS regimes, and the excess energy is converted into sound. We interpret this effect as being due to evolution of Andreev bound states localized within the soliton.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Quantum tunneling of a vortex between two pinning potentials

A vortex can tunnel between two pinning potentials in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate on a time scale of the order of 1s under typical experimental conditions. This makes it possible to detect the tunneling experimentally. We calculate the tunneling rate by phenomenologically treating vortices as point-like charged particles moving in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The obtained results are in close agreement with numerical simulations based on the stochastic c-field theory.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Inelastic scattering of atoms in a double well

We study a mixture of two light spin-1/2 fermionic atoms and two heavy atoms %in a Mott state in a double well potential. Inelastic scattering processes between both atomic species excite the heavy atoms and renormalize the tunneling rate and the interaction of the light atoms (polaron effect). The effective interaction of the light atoms changes its sign and becomes attractive for strong inelastic scattering. This is accompanied by a crossing of the energy levels from singly occupied sites at weak inelastic scattering to a doubly occupied and an empty site for stronger inelastic scattering. We are able to identify the polaron effect and the level crossing in the quantum dynamics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Spin-1/2 fermions with attractive interaction in an optical lattice

We study attractive fermions in an optical lattice superimposed by a trapping potential, such that fermions may form bosonic molecules. We map the model onto nonlinear field equations depending on the Nambu-Gor'kov propagator. The resulting field equations where solved numerically by a relaxation technique that allowed us to calculate the inhomogeneous densities of fermions and condensed molecules at zero temperature. When the interactions between fermions are strong there is a competition between unbound fermions and bound molecules leading to an unexpected reduction of the non-homogeneous density of fermions at the center of the trap.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Noise correlations of a strongly attractive spin-1/2 Fermi gas in an optical lattice

We calculate density-density correlations of an expanding gas of strongly attractive ultra-cold spin-1/2 fermions in an optical lattice. The phase diagram of the tightly bound fermion pairs exhibits a Bose-Einstein condensed state and a Mott insulating state with a single molecule per lattice site. We study the effects of quantum fluctuations on the correlations in both phases and show that they are especially important in the Bose-Einstein condensate state, leading to the appearance of singular peaks. In the Mott insulating state the correlations are characterized by sharp dips. This can be utilized in experiments to distinguish between these two phases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2008

Anderson localization in a correlated fermionic mixture

A mixture of two fermionic species with different masses is studied in an optical lattice. The heavy fermions are subject only to thermal fluctuations, the light fermions also to quantum fluctuations. We derive the Ising-like distribution for the heavy atoms and study the localization properties of the light fermions numerically by a transfer-matrix method. In a two-dimensional system one-parameter scaling of the localization length is found with a transition from delocalized states at low temperatures to localized states at high temperature. The critical exponent of the localization length is $ν\approx 0.88$.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2008

Light Scattering on Random Dielectric Layers

Scattering of light by a random stack of dielectric layers represents a one-dimensional scattering problem, where the scattered field is a three-dimensional vector field. We investigate the dependence of the scattering properties (band gaps and Anderson localization) on the wavelength, strength of randomness and relative angle of the incident wave. There is a characteristic angular dependence of Anderson localization for wavelengths close to the thickness of the layers. In particular, the localization length varies non-monotonously with the angle. In contrast to Anderson localization, absorptive layers do not have this characteristic angular dependence.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2007

Functional-integral representation of atomic mixtures

A mixture of spin-1/2 fermionic atoms and molecules of paired fermionic atoms is studied in an optical lattice. The molecules are formed by an attractive nearest-neighbor interaction. A functional integral is constructed for this many-body system and analyzed in terms of a mean-field approximation and Gaussian fluctuations. This provides a phase diagram with the two merging Mott insulators and an intermediate superfluid. The Gaussian fluctuations give rise to an induced repulsive dimer-dimer interaction mediated by the unpaired fermions. The effect of an unbalanced distribution of spin-up and spin-down fermions is also discussed.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2007

Interacting bosons in an optical lattice

Several models of a strongly interacting Bose gas in an optical lattice are studied within the functional-integral approach. The one-dimensional Bose gas is briefly discussed. Then the Bose-Einstein condensate and the Mott insulator of a three-dimensional Bose gas are described in mean-field approximation, and the corresponding phase diagrams are evaluated. Other characteristic quantities, like the spectrum of quasiparticle excitations and the static structure factor, are obtained from Gaussian fluctuations around the mean-field solutions. We discuss the role of quantum and thermal fluctuations, and determine the behavior of physical quantities in terms of density and temperature of the Bose gas. In particular, we study the dilute limit, where the mean-field equation becomes the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. This allows us to extend the Gross-Pitaevskii equation to the dense regime by introducing renormalized parameters in the latter.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2007

Interacting bosons in an optical lattice: Bose-Einstein condensates and Mott insulator

A dense Bose gas with hard-core interaction is considered in an optical lattice. We study the phase diagram in terms of a special mean-field theory that describes a Bose-Einstein condensate and a Mott insulator with a single particle per lattice site for zero as well as for non-zero temperatures. We calculate the densities, the excitation spectrum and the static structure factor for each of these phases.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗