arXiv subjects

Ofir E. Alon

Publications and source records attributed to Ofir E. Alon.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Rotation-mediated bosonic Josephson junctions in position and momentum spaces

In ultracold atoms, bosons tunneling in a double-well potential can produce a typical Josephson junction in real space. A major advancement in quantum matter and simulations is anticipated by the recently found momentum-space Josephson junctions, which elucidates the supercurrent flow between spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates at two distinct independent momentum states. For the first time, our study unveils specific protocols to engineer momentum-space Josephson dynamics for scalar bosons (or a single-component condensate) in a rotating frame through modulation of the geometry of a double-well trapping potential and rotation frequencies. In this setup, the rotation simultaneously results in effective double wells both in position and in momentum spaces, and the dynamics of the corresponding Josephson junctions is hosted in these double wells. Consequently, it is observed that the rotation generates momentum-space Josephson dynamics of the condensate along the transverse direction and position-space Josephson dynamics along the longitudinal direction; these effects are particularly noticeable for high rotation frequencies. Additionally, the rotation-induced momentum-space junctions are highly significant in both the mean-field and many-body dynamics. Our protocols offer a framework for investigating momentum-space Josephson junctions for single-component condensates in both theoretical and experimental contexts, as well as their significant applications in quantum mechanical devices.

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arXiv2026

Inferring rotations using a bosonic Josephson junction

Rotation and quantum tunneling are fundamental concepts in physics, and their interplay in the ultracold atomic systems is of particular interest. In this theoretical work, we explore how tunneling dynamics in a bosonic Josephson junction are modified when the system is placed in a rotating, non-inertial frame. We show that the tunneling dynamics of ultracold bosons in a two-dimensional double-well potential offer an alternative pathway for inferring the rotation frequency. Using the mean-field and many-body analyses, we demonstrate that rotation strongly modifies the tunneling time period as well as the momentum and angular momentum dynamics. When the rotation axis passes through the center of the double well, the observables show distinct dynamical responses with increasing rotation frequency, enabling the rotation frequency to be assessed from changes in the tunneling dynamics. When the potential is displaced from the rotation axis, the rotation induces asymmetric tunneling and partial self-trapping, allowing both the rotation frequency and the displacement to be inferred. We further show that for an off-centered double well, the tunneling dynamics exhibit a pronounced orientation dependence, enabling the orientation of the double well to be inferred from the observed dynamics. The many-body analysis further shows that the depletion dynamics are strongly influenced by rotation, providing an additional tool for assessing the rotation frequency. Finally, we study the effect of time-dependent rotation in which the double well is gradually set into motion in the laboratory frame and identify distinct dynamical signatures that depend sensitively on the switching time. Together, these results establish a comprehensive framework for inferring the rotation frequency, radial displacement, and orientation directly from the tunneling dynamics.

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arXiv2025

Rotation quenches in trapped bosonic systems

The ground state properties of strongly rotating bosons confined in an asymmetric anharmonic potential exhibit a split density distribution. However, the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of this split structure remain largely unexplored. Given that rotation is responsible for the breakup of the bosonic cloud, we investigate the out-of-equilibrium dynamics by abruptly changing the rotation frequency. Our study offers insights into the dynamics of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates in both symmetric and asymmetric anharmonic potentials under different rotation quench scenarios. In the rotationally symmetric trap, angular momentum is a good quantum number. This makes it challenging to exchange angular momentum within the system; hence, a rotation quench does practically not impact the density distribution. In contrast, the absence of angular momentum conservation in asymmetric traps results in more complex dynamics. This allows rotation quenches to either inject into or extract angular momentum from the system. We observe and analyze these intricate dynamics both for the mean-field condensed and the many-body fragmented systems. The dynamical evolution of the condensed system and the fragmented system exhibits similarities in several observables during small rotation quenches. However, these similarities diverge notably for larger quenches. Additionally, we investigate the formation and the impact of the vortices on the angular momentum dynamics of the evolving split density. All in all, our findings offer valuable insights into the dynamics of trapped interacting bosons under different rotation quenches.

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arXiv2024

Assessing small accelerations using a bosonic Josephson junction

Bosonic Josephson junctions provide a versatile platform for exploring quantum tunneling and coherence phenomena in ultracold atomic systems. While extensive research has examined the Josephson-junction dynamics in various double-well configurations, most studies have been limited to inertial reference frames. In the present work, we posed the question how placing a Josephson junction in a non-inertial reference frame would impact the quantum tunnelling. Our findings demonstrate that accelerating a Josephson junction alters the tunneling dynamics. Conversely, tunneling behavior can be used to assess the acceleration of the system. By analyzing the changes in physical properties, we can assess the acceleration of the double-well. We begin with the most simple non-inertial frame: moving with constant acceleration. The tunneling time decreases exponentially as acceleration increases, making it effective for measuring larger accelerations. However, for smaller accelerations, accurate assessment requires accounting for many-body depletion, which decreases linearly as acceleration rises. Next, we explore a more complex scenario where the acceleration is time dependent. In this case, the acceleration is mapped onto the tunneling time period and depletion, which again serve as predictors of acceleration. We go further by conducting a detailed analysis of the change in tunnelling dynamics when the system deviates from constant or zero acceleration. The quantitative analysis show that the depletion changes exponentially near constant acceleration, while around zero acceleration, the change follows a polynomial pattern. All in all, we quantify how the tunneling process, as well as the mean-field and many-body properties, evolve in a non-inertial system of increasing complexity.

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arXiv2024

Interference of longitudinal and transversal fragmentations in the Josephson tunneling dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates

The dynamics of bosons in Josephson junctions have drawn much attention where the bosons are initially condensed. When interacting bosons tunnel back and forth along the junction, depletion and eventually fragmentation develop. Here, we pose the question how do fragmented bosons tunnel in a bosonic Josephson junction? To this end, we exploit the transverse degree-of-freedom of the junction to encode initial fragmentation to the bosonic cloud. We analyze the survival probability along the junction, fluctuations of particle positions across the junction, and the occupancy of the lowest single-particle states. The dynamics found is rich and includes the speed up of the collapse of density oscillations and slow down of the revival process. It is found that a fully fragmented state significantly accelerates the revival process compared to the conventional Bose-Einstein condensate. To explain the underlying many-body mechanism, we show that the initial fragmentation in the transverse direction interferes with the development of fragmentation in time along the junction. The dynamics of occupation in the first excited single-particle state defines whether interference of fragmentations occurs in the junction. The interference mechanism is a purely many-body effect that does not occur in the mean-field dynamics. All in all, we show that the interference of longitudinal and transversal fragmentations leads to new rules for macroscopic tunneling phenomena of interacting bosons in traps.

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arXiv2024

Coupled-cluster theory for trapped bosonic mixtures

We develop a coupled-cluster theory for bosonic mixtures of binary species in external traps, providing a promising theoretical approach to demonstrate highly accurately the many-body physics of mixtures of Bose-Einstein condensates. The coupled-cluster wavefunction for the binary species is obtained when an exponential cluster operator $e^T$, where $T=T^{(1)}+T^{(2)}+T^{(12)}$ and $T^{(1)}$ accounts for excitations in species-1, $T^{(2)}$ for excitations in species-2, and $T^{(12)}$ for combined excitations in both species, acts on the ground state configuration prepared by accumulating all bosons in a single orbital for each species. We have explicitly derived the working equations for the bosonic mixtures by truncating the cluster operator upto the single and double excitations and using an arbitrary sets of orthonormal orbitals for each of the species. Further, the comparatively simplified version of the working equations are formulated using the Fock-like operators. Finally, using an exactly solvable many-body model for bosonic mixtures that exists in the literature allows us to implement and test the performance and accuracy of the coupled-cluster theory for situations with balanced as well as imbalanced boson numbers and for weak to moderately strong intra- and inter-species interaction strengths. The comparison between our computed results using coupled-cluster theory with the respective analytical exact results displays remarkable agreement exhibiting excellent success of the coupled-cluster theory for bosonic mixtures. All in all, the correlation exhaustive coupled-cluster theory shows encouraging results and it could be a promising approach in paving the way for high-accuracy modelling of various bosonic mixture systems.

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arXiv2024

Condensates Breaking Up Under Rotation

The ground state of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a two-dimensional anharmonic--anisotropic potential is analyzed numerically at the limit of an infinite number of particles. We find that the density breaks up along the $x$ direction in position space and along the $p_y$ direction in momentum space together with the acquisition of angular momentum. Side by side, the anisotropies of the many-particle position variances along the $x$ and $y$ directions and of the many-particle momentum variances along the $p_y$ and $p_x$ directions become opposite when computed at the many-body and mean-field levels of theory. All in all, the rotating bosons are found to possess unique correlations at the limit of an infinite number of particles, both in position and momentum spaces, although their many-body and mean-field energies per particle and densities per particle coincide and the condensate fraction is 100\%. Implications are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2023

Correlation Effects in a Trapped Bose-Fermi Mixture: Exact Results

Many-body properties of a fermionic impurity embedded in a Bose-Einstein condensate are analyzed analytically using a solvable model, the harmonic-interaction model for Bose-Fermi mixtures. The one-particle and two-particle densities, reduced density matrices, and correlation functions of the fermions and bosons, both in position and momentum spaces, are prescribed in closed form. The various coherence lengths are analyzed. We show that the first-order coherence lengths in position and momentum spaces are equal whereas the second-order quantities can differ substantially. Illustrative examples where the sole interaction is between the impurity and the condensate are presented. Implications are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2023

Entanglement and correlations in an exactly-solvable model of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a cavity

An exactly solvable model of a trapped interacting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) coupled in the dipole approximation to a quantized light mode in a cavity is presented. The model can be seen as a generalization of the harmonic-interaction model for a trapped BEC coupled to a bosonic bath. After obtaining the ground-state energy and wavefunction in closed form, we focus on computing the correlations in the system. The reduced one-particle density matrices of the bosons and the cavity are constructed and diagonalized analytically, and the von Neumann entanglement entropy of the BEC and the cavity is also expressed explicitly as a function of the number and mass of the bosons, frequencies of the trap and cavity, and the cavity-boson coupling strength. The results allow one to study the impact of the cavity on the bosons and vice versa on an equal footing. As an application we investigate a specific case of basic interest for itself, namely, non-interacting bosons in a cavity. We find that both the bosons and the cavity develop correlations in a complementary manner while increasing the coupling between them. Whereas the cavity wavepacket broadens in Fock space, the BEC density saturates in real space. On the other hand, while the cavity depletion saturates, and hence does the BEC-cavity entanglement entropy, the BEC becomes strongly correlated and eventually increasingly fragmented. The latter phenomenon implies single-trap fragmentation of otherwise ideal bosons, where their induced long-range interaction is mediated by the cavity. Finally, as a complimentary investigation, the mean-field equations for the BEC-cavity system are solved analytically as well, and the breakdown of mean-field theory for the cavity and the bosons with increasing coupling is discussed. Further applications are envisaged.

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arXiv2022

Fragmentation of a trapped bosonic mixture

Fragmentation of bosons and pairs in a trapped imbalanced bosonic mixture is investigated analytically using an exactly solvable model, the generic harmonic-interaction model for mixtures. Closed-form expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the reduced one-particle and two-particle density matrices as a function of all parameters, the masses, numbers of bosons, and the intraspecies and interspecies interactions, are obtained and analyzed. As an application, we consider a system made of $N_1=100$ non-interacting species $1$ bosons embedded in a bath made of $N_2=10^6$ non-interacting species $2$ bosons, and show how fragmentation of the system's bosons and pairs emerges from the system--bath interaction only. Interestingly, the lighter the bosons comprising the bath are the stronger is the system's fragmentation. Further applications are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2022

Fragmentation and correlations in a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate undergoing breakup

The theoretical investigation of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates has mainly focused on the emergence of quantum vortex states and the condensed properties of such systems. In the present work, we concentrate on other facets by examining the impact of rotation on the ground state of weakly interacting bosons confined in anharmonic potentials computed both at the mean-field level and particularly at the many-body level of theory. For the many-body computations, we employ the well-established many-body method known as the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB). We present how various degrees of fragmentation can be generated following the breakup of the ground state densities in anharmonic traps without ramping up a potential barrier for strong rotations. The breakup of the densities is found to be associated with the acquisition of angular momentum in the condensate due to the rotation. In addition to fragmentation, the presence of many-body correlations is examined by computing the variances of the many-particle position and momentum operators. For strong rotations, the many-body variances become smaller than their mean-field counterparts, and one even finds a scenario with opposite anisotropies of the mean-field and many-body variances. Further, it is observed that for higher discrete symmetric systems of order k, namely three-fold and four-fold symmetry, breakup to k sub-clouds and emergence of k-fold fragmentation take place. All in all, we provide a thorough many-body investigation of how and which correlations build up when a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate breaks up under rotation.

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arXiv2021

Fragmentation of identical and distinguishable bosons' pairs and natural geminals of a trapped bosonic mixture

In a mixture of two kinds of identical bosons there are two types of pairs, identical bosons' pairs, of either species, and pairs of distinguishable bosons. In the present work fragmentation of pairs in a trapped mixture of Bose-Einstein condensate is investigated using a solvable model, the symmetric harmonic-interaction model for mixtures. The natural geminals for pairs made of identical or distinguishable bosons are explicitly contracted by diagonalizing the intra-species and inter-species reduced two-particle density matrices, respectively. Properties of pairs' fragmentation in the mixture are discussed, the role of the mixture's center-of-mass and relative center-of-mass coordinates is elucidated, and a generalization to higher-order reduced density matrices is made. As a complementary result, the exact Schmidt decomposition of the wavefunction of the bosonic mixture is constructed. The entanglement between the two species is governed by the coupling of their individual center-of-mass coordinates, and it does not vanish at the limit of an infinite number of particles where any finite-order intra-species and inter-species reduced density matrix per particle is 100\% condensed. Implications are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2021

Morphology of an interacting three-dimensional trapped Bose-Einstein condensate from many-particle variance anisotropy

The variance of the position operator is associated with how wide or narrow a wave-packet is, the momentum variance is similarly correlated with the size of a wave-packet in momentum space, and the angular-momentum variance quantifies to what extent a wave-packet is non-spherically symmetric. We examine an interacting three-dimensional trapped Bose-Einstein condensate at the limit of an infinite number of particles, and investigate its position, momentum, and angular-momentum anisotropies. Computing the variances of the three Cartesian components of the position, momentum, and angular-momentum operators we present simple scenarios where the anisotropy of a Bose-Einstein condensate is different at the many-body and mean-field levels of theory, despite having the same many-body and mean-field densities per particle. This suggests a way to classify correlations via the morphology of 100\% condensed bosons in a three-dimensional trap at the limit of an infinite number of particles. Implications are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2021

Longitudinal and transversal resonant tunneling of interacting bosons in a two-dimensional Josephson junction: Mean-field and many-body dynamics

We unravel the out-of-equilibrium quantum dynamics of a few interacting bosonic clouds in a two-dimensional asymmetric double-well potential at the resonant tunneling scenario. At the single-particle level of resonant tunneling, particles tunnel under the barrier from, typically, the ground-state in the left well to an excited state in the right well, i.e., states of different shapes and properties are coupled when their one-particle energies coincide. In two spatial dimensions, two types of resonant tunneling processes are possible, to which we refer to as longitudinal and transversal resonant tunneling. Longitudinal resonant tunneling implies that the state in the right well is longitudinally-excited with respect to the state in the left well, whereas transversal resonant tunneling implies that the former is transversely-excited with respect to the latter. We show that interaction between bosons makes resonant tunneling phenomena in two spatial dimensions profoundly rich, and analyze these phenomena in terms of the loss of coherence of the junction and development of fragmentation, and coupling between transverse and longitudinal degrees-of-freedom and excitations. To this end, a detailed analysis of the tunneling dynamics is performed by exploring the time evolution of a few physical quantities, namely, the survival probability, occupation numbers of the reduced one-particle density matrix, and the many-particle position, momentum, and angular-momentum variances. In general, we display the impact of the transversal and longitudinal degrees-of-freedom in the many-boson tunneling dynamics at the resonant tunneling scenarios.

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arXiv2021

Many-body effects in the excitations and dynamics of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

This review explores the dynamics and the low-energy excitation spectra of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of interacting bosons in external potential traps putting particular emphasis on the emerging many-body effects beyond mean-field descriptions. To do so, methods have to be used that, in principle, can provide numerically exact results for both the dynamics and the excitation spectra in a systematic manner. Numerically exact results for the dynamics are presented employing the well-established multicongurational time-dependent Hartree for bosons (MCTDHB) method. The respective excitation spectra are calculated utilizing the more recently introduced linear-response theory atop it (LR-MCTDHB). The latter theory gives rise to an, in general, non-hermitian eigenvalue problem. The theory and its newly developed implementation are described in detail and benchmarked towards the exactly-solvable harmonic-interaction model. Several applications to BECs in one- and two-dimensional potential traps are discussed. With respect to dynamics, it is shown that both the out-of-equilibrium tunneling dynamics and the dynamics of trapped vortices are of many-body nature. Furthermore, many-body effects in the excitation spectra are presented for BECs in different trap geometries. It is demonstrated that even for essentially-condensed systems, the spectrum of the lowest-in-energy excitations computed at the many-body level can differ substantially from the standard mean-field description. In general, it is shown that bosons carrying angular momentum are more sensitive to many-body effects than bosons without. These effects are present in both the dynamics and the excitation spectrum.

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arXiv2020

Solvable model of a generic driven mixture of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates and properties of a many-boson Floquet state at the limit of an infinite number of particles

A solvable model of a periodically-driven trapped mixture of Bose-Einstein condensates, consisting of $N_1$ interacting bosons of mass $m_1$ driven by a force of amplitude $f_{L,1}$ and $N_2$ interacting bosons of mass $m_2$ driven by a force of amplitude $f_{L,2}$, is presented. The model generalizes the harmonic-interaction model for mixtures to the time-dependent domain. The resulting many-particle ground Floquet wavefunction and quasienergy, as well as the time-dependent densities and reduced density matrices, are prescribed explicitly and analyzed at the many-body and mean-field levels of theory for finite systems and at the limit of an infinite number of particles. We prove that the time-dependent densities per particle are given at the limit of an infinite number of particles by their respective mean-field quantities, and that the time-dependent reduced one-particle and two-particle density matrices per particle of the driven mixture are $100\%$ condensed. Interestingly, the quasienergy per particle {\it does not} coincide with the mean-field value at this limit, unless the relative center-of-mass coordinate of the two Bose-Einstein condensates is not activated by the driving forces $f_{L,1}$ and $f_{L,2}$. As an application, we investigate the imprinting of angular momentum and its fluctuations when steering a Bose-Einstein condensate by an interacting bosonic impurity, and the resulting modes of rotations. Whereas the expectation values per particle of the angular-momentum operator for the many-body and mean-field solutions coincide at the limit of an infinite number of particles, the respective fluctuations can differ substantially. The results are analyzed in terms of the transformation properties of the angular-momentum operator under translations and boosts and the interactions between the particles. Implications are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2020

Impact of the transverse direction on the many-body tunneling dynamics in a two-dimensional bosonic Josephson junction

Tunneling in a many-body system appears as one of the novel implications of quantum physics, in which particles move in space under an otherwise classically-forbidden potential barrier. Here, we theoretically describe the quantum dynamics of the tunneling phenomenon of a few intricate bosonic clouds in a closed system of a two-dimensional symmetric double-well potential. We examine how the inclusion of the transverse direction, orthogonal to the junction of the double-well, can intervene in the tunneling dynamics of bosonic clouds. We use a well-known many-body numerical method, called the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree for bosons (MCTDHB) method. MCTDHB allows one to obtain accurately the time-dependent many-particle wavefunction of the bosons which in principle entails all the information of interest about the system under investigation. We analyze the tunneling dynamics by preparing the initial state of the bosonic clouds in the left well of the double-well either as the ground, longitudinally or transversely excited, or a vortex state. We unravel the detailed mechanism of the tunneling process by analyzing the evolution in time of the survival probability, depletion and fragmentation, and the many-particle position, momentum, and angular-momentum expectation values and their variances. As a general rule, all objects lose coherence while tunneling through the barrier and the states which include transverse excitations do so faster. Implications are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2020

Multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree approaches for indistinguishable particles

In this Colloquium, the wavefunction-based Multiconfigurational Time-Dependent Hartree approaches to the dynamics of indistinguishable particles (MCTDH-F for Fermions and MCTDH-B for Bosons) are reviewed. MCTDH-B and MCTDH-F or, together, MCTDH-X are methods for describing correlated quantum systems of identical particles by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation from first principles. MCTDH-X is used to accurately model the dynamics of real-world quantum many-body systems in atomic, molecular, and optical physics. The key feature of these approaches is the time-dependence and optimization of the single-particle states employed for the construction of a many-body basis set, which yields nonlinear working equations. We briefly describe the historical developments that have lead to the formulation of the MCTDH-X methods and motivate the necessity for wavefunction-based approaches. We sketch the derivation of the unified MCTDH-F and MCTDH-B equations of motion for complete and also specific restricted configuration spaces. The strengths and limitations of the MCTDH-X approach are assessed via benchmarks against an exactly solvable model and via convergence checks. We highlight some applications to instructive and experimentally-realized quantum many-body systems: the dynamics of atoms in Bose-Einstein condensates in magneto-optical and optical traps and of electrons in atoms and molecules. We discuss the current development and frontiers in the field of MCTDH-X: theories and numerical methods for indistinguishable particles, for mixtures of multiple species of indistinguishable particles, the inclusion of nuclear motion for the nonadiabatic dynamics of atomic and molecular systems, as well as the multilayer and second-quantized-representation approaches, and the orbital-adaptive time-dependent coupled-cluster theory are discussed.

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