arXiv subjects

Roberto Franzosi

Publications and source records attributed to Roberto Franzosi.

54 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Quantum localization and bound state formation in Bose-Einstein condensates

We discuss the possibility of exponential quantum localization in systems of ultracold bosonic atoms with repulsive interactions in open optical lattices without disorder. We show that exponential localization occurs in the maximally excited state of the lowest energy band. We establish the conditions under which the presence of the upper energy bands can be neglected, determine the successive stages and the quantum phase boundaries at which localization occurs, and discuss schemes to detect it experimentally by visibility measurements. The discussed mechanism is a particular type of quantum localization that is intuitively understood in terms of the interplay between nonlinearity and a bounded energy spectrum.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Dynamics of atoms in a time-orbiting-potential trap: consequences of the classical description

The classical model that describes the motion of an atom in a magnetic trap is solved in order to investigate the relationship between the failure of the usual adiabatic approximation assumption and the physical parameters of the trap. This allows to evaluate the effect that reversing of the bias field rotation produces on the vertical position of the atomic orbit, a displacement that is closely related to the adiabatic character of the trap motion. The present investigation has been motivated by a similar experimental test previously carried out in the actual magnetic time orbiting potential trap. We find that the non-adiabatic effects provided by the classical model are extremely small. Thus, we conclude that the theoretical explanation of the experimental measures, requires a quantum description of the dynamics in magnetic traps.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2007

Nonclassical dynamics of Bose condensates in an optical lattice in the superfluid regime

A condensate in an optical lattice, prepared in the ground state of the superfluid regime, is stimulated first by suddenly increasing the optical lattice amplitude and then, after a waiting time, by abruptly decreasing this amplitude to its initial value. Thus the system is first taken to the Mott regime and then back to the initial superfluid regime. We show that, as a consequence of this nonadiabatic process, the system falls into a configuration far from equilibrium whose superfluid order parameter is described in terms of a particular superposition of Glauber coherent states that we derive. We also show that the classical equations of motion describing the time evolution of this system are inequivalent to the standard discrete nonlinear Schreodinger equations. By numerically integrating such equations with several initial conditions, we show that the system loses coherence, becoming insulating.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Coherent transport of cold atoms in angle-tuned optical lattices

Optical lattices with a large spacing between the minima of the optical potential can be created using the angle-tuned geometry where the 1-D periodic potential is generated by two propagating laser beams intersecting at an angle different from $π$. The present work analyzes the coherent transport for the case of this geometry. We show that the potential depth can be kept constant during the transport by choosing a magic value for the laser wavelength. This value agrees with that of the counterpropagating laser case, and the magic wavelength does not depend of the optical lattice geometry. Moreover, we find that this scheme can be used to implement controlled collision experiments under special geometric conditions. Finally we study the transport of hyperfine-Zeeman states of rubidium 87.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Topology and Phase Transitions I. Preliminary Results

In this first paper, we demonstrate a theorem that establishes a first step toward proving a necessary topological condition for the occurrence of first or second order phase transitions: we prove that the topology of certain submanifolds of configuration space must necessarily change at the phase transition point. The theorem applies to smooth, finite-range and confining potentials V bounded below, describing systems confined in finite regions of space with continuously varying coordinates. The relevant configuration space submanifolds are both the level sets {Σ_v := V_N^{-1} (v)}_{v \in R} of the potential function V_N and the configuration space submanifolds enclosed by the Σ_{v} defined by {M_v := V_N^{-1} ((-\infty,v])}_{v \in R}, which are labeled by the potential energy value v, and where N is the number of degrees of freedom. The proof of the theorem proceeds by showing that, under the assumption of diffeomorphicity of the equipotential hypersurfaces {Σ_v}_{v \in R}, as well as of the ${M_v}_{v \in R}, in an arbitrary interval of values for \vb=v/N, the Helmoltz free energy is uniformly convergent in N to its thermodynamic limit, at least within the class of twice differentiable functions, in the corresponding interval of temperature. This preliminary theorem is essential to prove another theorem - in paper II - which makes a stronger statement about the relevance of topology for phase transitions.

math-ph↗

arXiv2005

Topology and Phase Transitions: Theorem on a necessary relation

An emended and improved version of the present paper has been archived in math-ph/0505057, and a preliminary account of its content has been published in Phys.Rev.Lett. 92, 60601, (2004). Moreover, in order to prove the relevance of topology for phase transition phenomena in a broad domain of physically interesting cases, we have proved another theorem which is reported in math-ph/0505058 and which is crucially based on the result of the paper archived in math-ph/0505057.

math-ph↗

arXiv2004

Weak and strong chaos in FPU models and beyond

We briefly review some of the most relevant results that our group obtained in the past, while investigating the dynamics of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) models. A first result is the numerical evidence of the existence of two different kinds of transitions in the dynamics of the FPU models: i) a Stochasticity Threshold (ST), characterized by a value of the energy per degree of freedom below which the overwhelming majority of the phase space trajectories are regular (vanishing Lyapunov exponents). It tends to vanish as the number N of degrees of freedom is increased. ii) a Strong Stochasticity Threshold (SST), characterized by a value of the energy per degree of freedom at which a crossover appears between two different power laws of the energy dependence of the largest Lyapunov exponent, which phenomenologically corresponds to the transition between weakly and strongly chaotic regimes. It is stable with N. A second result is the development of a Riemannian geometric theory to explain the origin of Hamiltonian chaos. The starting of this theory has been motivated by the inadequacy of the approach based on homoclinic intersections to explain the origin of chaos in systems of arbitrarily large N, or arbitrarily far from quasi-integrability, or displaying a transition between weak and strong chaos. Finally, a third result stems from the search for the transition between weak and strong chaos in systems other than FPU. Actually, we found that a very sharp SST appears as the dynamical counterpart of a thermodynamic phase transition, which in turn has led, in the light of the Riemannian theory of chaos, to the development of a topological theory of phase transitions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2004

Lyapunov exponents from unstable periodic orbits in the FPU-beta model

In the framework of a recently developed theory for Hamiltonian chaos, which makes use of the formulation of Newtonian dynamics in terms of Riemannian differential geometry, we obtained analytic values of the largest Lyapunov exponent for the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-beta model (FPU-beta) by computing the time averages of the metric tensor curvature and of its fluctuations along analytically known unstable periodic orbits (UPOs). The agreement between our results and the Lyapunov exponents obtained by means of standard numerical simulations supports the fact that UPOs are reliable probes of a general dynamical property as chaotic instability.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2004

Nonadiabatic effects in the dynamics of atoms confined in a cylindric time-orbiting-potential magnetic trap

In a time-orbiting-potential magnetic trap the neutral atoms are confined by means of an inhomogeneous magnetic field superimposed to an uniform rotating one. We perform an analytic study of the atomic motion by taking into account the nonadiabatic effects arising from the spin dynamics about the local magnetic field. Geometric-like magnetic-fields determined by the Berry's phase appear within the quantum description. The application of a variational procedure on the original quantum equation leads to a set of dynamical evolution equations for the quantum average value of the position operator and of the spin variables. Within this approximation we derive the quantum-mechanical ground state configuration matching the classical adiabatic solution and perform some numerical simulations.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2003

A Theorem on the origin of Phase Transitions

For physical systems described by smooth, finite-range and confining microscopic interaction potentials V with continuously varying coordinates, we announce and outline the proof of a theorem that establishes that unless the equipotential hypersurfaces of configuration space Σ_v ={(q_1,...,q_N)\in R^N | V(q_1,...,q_N) = v}, v \in R, change topology at some v_c in a given interval [v_0, v_1] of values v of V, the Helmoltz free energy must be at least twice differentiable in the corresponding interval of inverse temperature (β(v_0), β(v_1)) also in the N -> \infty$ limit. Thus the occurrence of a phase transition at some β_c =β(v_c) is necessarily the consequence of the loss of diffeomorphicity among the {Σ_v}_{v < v_c}$ and the {Σ_v}_{v > v_c}, which is the consequence of the existence of critical points of V on Σ_{v=v_c}, that is points where \nabla V=0.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2002

Collective modes, chaotic behavior and self-trapping in the dynamics of three coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

The dynamics of three coupled bosonic wells (trimer) containing $N$ bosons is investigated within a standard (mean-field) semiclassical picture based on the coherent-state method. Various periodic solutions (configured as $π$-like, dimerlike and vortex states) representing collective modes are obtained analitically when the fixed points of trimer dynamics are identified on the $N$=const submanifold in the phase space. Hyperbolic, maximum and minimum points are recognized in the fixed-point set by studying the Hessian signature of the trimer Hamiltonian. The system dynamics in the neighbourhood of periodic orbits (associated to fixed points) is studied via numeric integration of trimer motion equations thus revealing a diffused chaotic behavior (not excluding the presence of regular orbits), macroscopic effects of population-inversion and self-trapping. In particular, the behavior of orbits with initial conditions close to the dimerlike periodic orbits shows how the self-trapping effect of dimerlike integrable subregimes is destroyed by the presence of chaos.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Topology and Phase Transitions: towards a proper mathematical definition of finite N transitions

A new point of view about the deep origin of thermodynamic phase transitions is sketched. The main idea is to link the appearance of phase transitions to some major topology change of suitable submanifolds of phase space instead of linking them to non-analyticity, as is usual in the Yang-Lee and in the Dobrushin-Ruelle-Sinai theories. In the new framework a new possibility appears to properly define a mathematical counterpart of phase transitions also at finite number of degrees of freedom. This is of prospective interest to the study of those systems that challenge the conventional approaches, as is the case of phase transitions in nuclear clusters.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

Self-trapping mechanisms in the dynamics of three coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

We formulate the dynamics of three coupled Bose-Einstein condensates within a semiclassical scenario based on the standard boson coherent states. We compare such a picture with that of Ref. 1 and show how our approach entails a simple formulation of the dimeric regime therein studied. This allows to recognize the parameters that govern the bifurcation mechanism causing self-trapping, and paves the way to the construction of analytic solutions. We present the results of a numerical simulation showing how the three-well dynamics has, in general, a cahotic behavior.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Spectral Properties of Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates

We investigate the energy spectrum structure of a system of two (identical) interacting bosonic wells occupied by N bosons within the Schwinger realization of the angular momentum. This picture enables us to recognize the symmetry properties of the system Hamiltonian H and to use them for characterizing the energy eigenstates. Also, it allows for the derivation of the single-boson picture which is shown to be the background picture naturally involved by the secular equation for H. After deriving the corresponding eigenvalue equation, we recast it in a recursive N-dependent form which suggests a way to generate the level doublets (characterizing the H spectrum) via suitable inner parameters. Finally, we show how the presence of doublets in the spectrum allows to recover, in the classical limit, the symmetry breaking effect that characterizes the system classically.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2000

Analytic Lyapunov exponents in a classical nonlinear field equation

It is shown that the nonlinear wave equation $\partial_t^2ϕ- \partial^2_x ϕ-μ_0\partial_x(\partial_xϕ)^3 =0$, which is the continuum limit of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) beta model, has a positive Lyapunov exponent lambda_1, whose analytic energy dependence is given. The result (a first example for field equations) is achieved by evaluating the lattice-spacing dependence of lambda_1 for the FPU model within the framework of a Riemannian description of Hamiltonian chaos. We also discuss a difficulty of the statistical mechanical treatment of this classical field system, which is absent in the dynamical description.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Topology and phase transitions: a paradigmatic evidence

We report upon the numerical computation of the Euler characteristic χ(a topologic invariant) of the equipotential hypersurfaces Σ_v of the configuration space of the two-dimensional lattice $ϕ^4$ model. The pattern χ(Σ_v) vs. v (potential energy) reveals that a major topology change in the family {Σ_v}_{v\in R} is at the origin of the phase transition in the model considered. The direct evidence given here - of the relevance of topology for phase transitions - is obtained through a general method that can be applied to any other model.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1998

Lyapunov exponents from geodesic spread in configuration space

The exact form of the Jacobi -- Levi-Civita (JLC) equation for geodesic spread is here explicitly worked out at arbitrary dimension for the configuration space manifold M_E = {q in R^N | V(q) < E} of a standard Hamiltonian system, equipped with the Jacobi (or kinetic energy) metric g_J. As the Hamiltonian flow corresponds to a geodesic flow on (M_E,g_J), the JLC equation can be used to study the degree of instability of the Hamiltonian flow. It is found that the solutions of the JLC equation are closely resembling the solutions of the standard tangent dynamics equation which is used to compute Lyapunov exponents. Therefore the instability exponents obtained through the JLC equation are in perfect quantitative agreement with usual Lyapunov exponents. This work completes a previous investigation that was limited only to two-degrees of freedom systems.

chao-dyn↗

arXiv1998

Topological aspects of geometrical signatures of phase transitions

Certain geometric properties of submanifolds of configuration space are numerically investigated for classical lattice phi^4 models in one and two dimensions. Peculiar behaviors of the computed geometric quantities are found only in the two-dimensional case, when a phase transition is present. The observed phenomenology strongly supports, though in an indirect way, a recently proposed topological conjecture about a topology change of the configuration space submanifolds as counterpart of a phase transition.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗