arXiv subjects

Tilman Enss

Publications and source records attributed to Tilman Enss.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Sound propagation and quantum limited damping in a two-dimensional Fermi gas

Strongly interacting two-dimensional Fermi systems are one of the great remaining challenges in many-body physics due to the interplay of strong local correlations and enhanced long-range fluctuations. Here, we probe the thermodynamic and transport properties of a 2D Fermi gas across the BEC-BCS crossover by studying the propagation and damping of sound modes. We excite particle currents by imprinting a phase step onto homogeneous Fermi gases trapped in a box potential and extract the speed of sound from the frequency of the resulting density oscillations. We measure the speed of sound across the BEC-BCS crossover and compare the resulting dynamic measurement of the equation of state both to a static measurement based on recording density profiles and to Quantum Monte Carlo calculations and find reasonable agreement between all three. We also measure the damping of the sound mode, which is determined by the shear and bulk viscosities as well as the thermal conductivity of the gas. We find that the damping is minimal in the strongly interacting regime and the diffusivity approaches the universal quantum bound $\hbar/m$ of a perfect fluid.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Bulk viscosity and contact correlations in attractive Fermi gases

The bulk viscosity determines dissipation during hydrodynamic expansion. It vanishes in scale invariant fluids, while a nonzero value quantifies the deviation from scale invariance. For the dilute Fermi gas the bulk viscosity is given exactly by the correlation function of the contact density of local pairs. As a consequence, scale invariance is broken purely by pair fluctuations. These fluctuations give rise also to logarithmic terms in the bulk viscosity of the high-temperature nondegenerate gas. For the quantum degenerate regime I report numerical Luttinger-Ward results for the contact correlator and the dynamical bulk viscosity throughout the BEC-BCS crossover. The ratio of bulk to shear viscosity $ζ/η$ is found to exceed the kinetic theory prediction in the quantum degenerate regime. Near the superfluid phase transition the bulk viscosity is enhanced by critical fluctuations and has observable effects on dissipative heating, expansion dynamics and sound attenuation.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Coupled superfluidity of binary Bose mixtures in two dimensions

We consider a two-component Bose gas in two dimensions at low temperature with short-range repulsive interaction. In the coexistence phase where both components are superfluid, inter-species interactions induce a nondissipative drag between the two superfluid flows (Andreev-Bashkin effect). We show that this behavior leads to a modification of the usual Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in two dimensions. We extend the renormalization of the superfluid densities at finite temperature using the renormalization group approach and find that the vortices of one component have a large influence on the superfluid properties of the other, mediated by the nondissipative drag. The extended BKT flow equations indicate that the occurrence of the vortex unbinding transition in one of the components can induce the breakdown of superfluidity also in the other, leading to a locking phenomenon for the critical temperatures of the two gases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Universal dynamical scaling of long-range topological superconductors

We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of $p$-wave superconducting quantum wires with long-range interactions, when the chemical potential is linearly ramped across the topological phase transition. We show that the heat produced after the quench scales with the quench rate $δ$ according to the scaling law $δ^θ$, where the exponent $θ$ depends on the power law exponent of the long-range interactions. We identify the parameter regimes where this scaling can be cast in terms of the universal equilibrium critical exponents and can thus be understood within the Kibble-Zurek framework. When the electron hopping decays more slowly in space than pairing, it dominates the equilibrium scaling. Surprisingly, in this regime the dynamical critical behaviour arises only from paring and, thus, exhibits anomalous dynamical universality unrelated to equilibrium scaling. The discrepancy from the expected Kibble-Zurek scenario can be traced back to the presence of multiple universal terms in the equilibrium scaling functions of long-range interacting systems close to a second order critical point.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Dynamical criticality and domain-wall coupling in long-range Hamiltonians

Dynamical quantum phase transitions hold a deep connection to the underlying equilibrium physics of the quench Hamiltonian. In a recent study [J.~C.~Halimeh \textit{et al.}, arXiv:1810.07187], it has been numerically demonstrated that the appearance of anomalous cusps in the Loschmidt return rate coincides with the presence of bound domain walls in the spectrum of the quench Hamiltonian. Here, we consider transverse-field Ising chains with power-law and exponentially decaying interactions, and show that by removing domain-wall coupling via a truncated Jordan-Wigner transformation onto a Kitaev chain with long-range hopping and pairing, anomalous dynamical criticality is no longer present. This indicates that bound domain walls are necessary for anomalous cusps to appear in the Loschmidt return rate. We also calculate the dynamical phase diagram of the Kitaev chain with long-range hopping and pairing, which in the case of power-law couplings is shown to exhibit rich dynamical criticality including a doubly critical dynamical phase.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2019

Real-space dynamics of attractive and repulsive polarons in Bose-Einstein condensates

We investigate the formation of a Bose polaron when a single impurity in a Bose-Einstein condensate is quenched from a non-interacting to an attractively interacting state in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance. We use a beyond-Fröhlich Hamiltonian to describe both sides of the resonance and a coherent-state variational ansatz to compute the time evolution of boson density profiles in position space. We find that on the repulsive side of the Feshbach resonance, the Bose polaron performs long-lived oscillations, which is surprising given that the two-body problem has only one bound state coupled to a continuum. They arise due to interference between multiply occupied bound states and therefore can be only found with many-body approaches such as the coherent-state ansatz. This is a distinguishing feature of the Bose polaron compared to the Fermi polaron where the bound state can be occupied only once. We derive an implicit equation for the frequency of these oscillations and show that it can be approximated by the energy of the two-body bound state. Finally, we consider an impurity introduced at non-zero velocity and find that, on the repulsive side, it is periodically slowed down or even arrested before speeding up again.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Dynamical critical scaling of long-range interacting quantum magnets

Slow variations (quenches) of the magnetic field across the paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition of spin systems produce heat. In systems with short-range interactions the heat exhibits universal power-law scaling as a function of the quench rate, known as Kibble-Zurek scaling. In this work we analyze slow quenches of the magnetic field in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model, which describes fully connected quantum spins. We analytically determine the quantum contribution to the residual heat as a function of the quench rate $δ$ by means of a Holstein-Primakoff expansion about the mean-field value. Unlike in the case of short-range interactions, scaling laws in the LMG model are only found for a ramp ending at the critical point. If instead the ramp is symmetric, as in the typical Kibble-Zurek scenario, after crossing the critical point the system tends to reabsorb the defects formed during the first part of the ramp: the number of excitations exhibits a crossover behavior as a function of $δ$ and tends to a constant in the thermodynamic limit. Previous, and seemingly contradictory, theoretical studies are identified as specific limits of this dynamics. Our results can be tested on several experimental platforms, including quantum gases and trapped ions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Universal Spin Transport and Quantum Bounds for Unitary Fermions

We review recent advances in experimental and theoretical understanding of spin transport in strongly interacting Fermi gases. The central new phenomenon is the observation of a lower bound on the (bare) spin diffusivity in the strongly interacting regime. Transport bounds are of broad interest for the condensed matter community, with a conceptual similarity to observed bounds in shear viscosity and charge conductivity. We discuss the formalism of spin hydrodynamics, how dynamics are parameterized by transport coefficients, the effect of confinement, the role of scale invariance, the quasi-particle picture, and quantum critical transport. We conclude by highlighting open questions, such as precise theoretical bounds, relevance to other phases of matter, and extensions to lattice systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Quantum scale anomaly and spatial coherence in a 2D Fermi superfluid

Quantum anomalies are violations of classical scaling symmetries caused by quantum fluctuations. Although they appear prominently in quantum field theory to regularize divergent physical quantities, their influence on experimental observables is difficult to discern. Here, we discovered a striking manifestation of a quantum anomaly in the momentum-space dynamics of a 2D Fermi superfluid of ultracold atoms. We measured the position and pair momentum distribution of the superfluid during a breathing mode cycle for different interaction strengths across the BEC-BCS crossover. Whereas the system exhibits self-similar evolution in the weakly interacting BEC and BCS limits, we found a violation in the strongly interacting regime. The signature of scale-invariance breaking is enhanced in the first-order coherence function. In particular, the power-law exponents that characterize long-range phase correlations in the system are modified due to this effect, indicating that the quantum anomaly has a significant influence on the critical properties of 2D superfluids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Nonperturbative renormalization group treatment of amplitude fluctuations for $|φ|^4$ topological phase transitions

The study of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in two-dimensional $|φ|^4$ models can be performed in several representations, and the amplitude-phase (AP) Madelung parametrization is a natural way to study the contribution of density fluctuations to nonuniversal quantities. We introduce a functional renormalization group scheme in AP representation where amplitude fluctuations are integrated first to yield an effective sine-Gordon model with renormalized superfluid stiffness. By a mapping between the lattice XY and continuum $|φ|^4$ models, our method applies to both on equal footing. Our approach correctly reproduces the existence of a line of fixed points and of universal thermodynamics and it allows to estimate universal and nonuniversal quantities of the two models, finding good agreement with available Monte Carlo results. The presented approach is flexible enough to treat parameter ranges of experimental relevance.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

High temperature pairing in a strongly interacting two-dimensional Fermi gas

We observe many-body pairing in a two-dimensional gas of ultracold fermionic atoms at temperatures far above the critical temperature for superfluidity. For this, we use spatially resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy to measure pairing energies spanning a wide range of temperatures and interaction strengths. In the strongly interacting regime where the scattering length between fermions is on the same order as the inter-particle spacing, the pairing energy in the normal phase significantly exceeds the intrinsic two-body binding energy of the system and shows a clear dependence on local density. This implies that pairing in this regime is driven by many-body correlations, rather than two-body physics. We find this effect to persist at temperatures close to the Fermi temperature which demonstrates that pairing correlations in strongly interacting two-dimensional fermionic systems are remarkably robust against thermal fluctuations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Nonlinear spin diffusion and spin rotation in a trapped Fermi gas

Transverse spin diffusion in a polarized, interacting Fermi gas leads to the Leggett-Rice effect, where the spin current precesses around the local magnetization. With a spin-echo sequence both the transverse diffusivity and the spin-rotation parameter $γ$ are obtained; the sign of $γ$ reveals the repulsive or attractive character of the effective interaction. In a trapped Fermi gas the spin diffusion equations become nonlinear, and their numerical solution exhibits an inhomogeneous spin state even at the spin echo time. While the microscopic diffusivity and $γ$ increase at weak coupling, their apparent values inferred from the trap-averaged magnetization saturate in agreement with a recent experiment for a dilute ultracold Fermi gas.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Universal equation of state and pseudogap in the two-dimensional Fermi gas

We determine the thermodynamic properties and the spectral function for a homogeneous two-dimensional Fermi gas in the normal state using the Luttinger-Ward, or self-consistent T-matrix, approach. The density equation of state deviates strongly from that of the ideal Fermi gas even for moderate interactions, and our calculations suggest that temperature has a pronounced effect on the pressure in the crossover from weak to strong coupling, consistent with recent experiments. We also compute the superfluid transition temperature for a finite system in the crossover region. There is a pronounced pseudogap regime above the transition temperature: the spectral function shows a Bogoliubov-like dispersion with back-bending, and the density of states is significantly suppressed near the chemical potential. The contact density at low temperatures increases with interaction and compares well with both experiment and zero-temperature Monte Carlo results.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Damping of the quadrupole mode in a two-dimensional Fermi gas

In a recent experiment [E. Vogt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 070404 (2012)], quadrupole and breathing modes of a two-dimensional Fermi gas were studied. We model these collective modes by solving the Boltzmann equation via the method of phase-space moments up to fourth order, including in-medium effects on the scattering cross section. In our analysis, we use a realistic Gaussian potential deformed by the presence of gravity and magnetic field gradients. We conclude that the origin of the experimentally observed damping of the quadrupole mode, especially in the weakly interacting (or even non-interacting) case, cannot be explained by these mechanisms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Transverse spin diffusion in strongly interacting Fermi gases

We compute spin diffusion in a dilute Fermi gas at arbitrary temperature, polarization and strong interaction in the normal phase using kinetic theory. While the longitudinal spin diffusivity depends weakly on polarization and diverges for small temperatures, the transverse spin diffusivity D_\perp has a strong polarization dependence and approaches a finite value for T->0 in the Fermi liquid phase. For a 3D unitary Fermi gas at infinite scattering length the diffusivities reach a minimum near the quantum limit of diffusion \hbar/m in the quantum degenerate regime and are strongly suppressed by medium scattering, and we discuss the importance of the spin-rotation effect. In two dimensions, D_\perp attains a minimum at strong coupling -1 < ln(kFa2D) < 1 and reaches D_\perp~0.2...0.3\hbar/m at large polarization. These values are consistent with recent measurements of two-dimensional ultracold atomic gases in the strong coupling regime.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Shear viscosity and spin sum rules in strongly interacting Fermi gases

Fermi gases with short-range interactions are ubiquitous in ultracold atomic systems. In the absence of spin-flipping processes the number of atoms in each spin species is conserved separately, and we discuss the associated Ward identities. For contact interactions the spin conductivity spectral function sigma_s(omega) has universal power-law tails at high frequency. We derive the spin f-sum rule and show that it is not affected by these tails in d<4 dimensions. Likewise the shear viscosity spectral function eta(omega) has universal tails; in contrast they modify the viscosity sum rule in a characteristic way.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Quantum mechanical limitations to spin diffusion in the unitary Fermi gas

We compute spin transport in the unitary Fermi gas using the strong-coupling Luttinger-Ward theory. In the quantum degenerate regime the spin diffusivity attains a minimum value of $D_s \simeq 1.3 \hbar/m$ approaching the quantum limit of diffusion for a particle of mass $m$. Conversely, the spin drag rate reaches a maximum value of $Γ_\sd \simeq 1.2 k_B T_F/\hbar$ in terms of the Fermi temperature $T_F$. The frequency-dependent spin conductivity $σ_s(ω)$ exhibits a broad Drude peak, with spectral weight transferred to a universal high-frequency tail $σ_s(ω\to\infty) = \hbar^{1/2}C/3π(mω)^{3/2}$ proportional to the Tan contact density $C$. For the spin susceptibility $χ_s(T)$ we find no downturn in the normal phase.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Quantum critical transport in the unitary Fermi gas

The thermodynamic and transport properties of the unitary Fermi gas at finite temperature T are governed by a quantum critical point at T=0 and zero density. We compute the universal shear viscosity to entropy ratio η/s in the high-temperature quantum critical regime T>>|μ| and find that this strongly coupled quantum fluid comes close to perfect fluidity η/s=\hbar/(4πk_B). Using a controlled large-N expansion we show that already at the first non-trivial order the equation of state and the Tan contact density C agree well with the most recent experimental measurements and theoretical Luttinger-Ward and Bold Diagrammatic Monte Carlo calculations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗