2018/11/30 by Kieran F. Thomas, Matthew J. Davis, K. V. Kheruntsyan +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Bose gas #Bose–Einstein condensate #Classical mechanics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Momentum (technical analysis) #Non-equilibrium thermodynamics #Parameter space #Physics #Position and momentum space #Quantum #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Relaxation (psychology) #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Thermal #Thermal equilibrium #Thermalisation #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.quant-gas #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.103.023315
published as Phys. Rev. A 103, 023315 (2021) · Final published version; 14 pages, 10 figures
openalex created_date 2018/11/09 · openalex publication_date 2021/02/15 · arxiv created 2021/02/16 · arxiv updated 2021/02/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the quantum Newton's cradle in a one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas in the weakly interacting quasicondensate regime. This is the opposite regime to the original quantum Newton's cradle experiment of [Kinoshita et al., Nature 440, 900 (2006)], which was realized in the strongly interacting 1D Bose gas. Using finite temperature c-field methods, we calculate the characteristic relaxation rates to the final equilibrium state. Hence, we identify the different dynamical regimes of the system in the parameter space that characterizes the strength of interatomic interactions, the initial temperature, and the magnitude of the Bragg momentum used to initiate the collisional oscillations of the cradle. In all parameter regimes, we find that the system relaxes to a final equilibrium state for which the momentum distribution is consistent with a thermal distribution. For sufficiently large initial Bragg momentum, the system can undergo hundreds of repeated collisional oscillations before reaching the final thermal equilibrium. The corresponding thermalization timescales can reach tens of seconds, which is an order of magnitude smaller than in the strongly interacting regime.