Edge-locking and quantum control in highly polarized spin chains

For an open-boundary spin chain with anisotropic Heisenberg (XXZ) interactions, we present states in which a connected block near the edge is polarized oppositely to the rest of the chain. We show that such blocks can be `locked' to the edge of the spin chain, and that there is a hierarchy of edge-locking effects at various orders of the anisotropy. The phenomenon enables dramatic control of quantum state transmission: the locked block can be freed by flipping a single spin or a few spins.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Viewpoint: Toward Fractional Quantum Hall physics with cold atoms

Viewpoint on Nigel R. Cooper and Jean Dalibard, "Reaching Fractional Quantum Hall States with Optical Flux Lattices", Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 185301 (2013), and N. Y. Yao, A. V. Gorshkov, C. R. Laumann, A. M. L\"auchli, J. Ye, and M. D. Lukin, "Realizing Fractional Chern Insulators in Dipolar Spin Systems", Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 185302 (2013). Researchers propose new ways to recreate fractional quantum Hall physics using ultracold atoms and molecules

Repulsive to attractive interaction quenches of 1D Bose gas in a harmonic trap

We consider quantum quenches of harmonically trapped one-dimensional bosons from repulsive to attractive interactions, and the resulting breathing dynamics of the so-called `super-Tonks-Girardeau' (sTG) state. This state is highly excited compared to the ground state of the attractive gas, and is the lowest eigenstate where the particles are not bound or clustered. We analyze the dynamics from a spectral point of view, identifying the relevant eigenstates of the interacting trapped many-body system, and analyzing the nature of these quantum eigenstates. To obtain explicit eigenspectra, we use Hamiltonians with finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces to approximate the Lieb-Liniger system. We employ two very different approximate approaches: an expansion in a truncated single-particle harmonic-trap basis and a lattice (Bose-Hubbard) model. We show how the breathing frequency, identified with the energy difference between the sTG state and another particular eigenstate, varies with interaction.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Squeezing in the weakly interacting uniform Bose condensate

We investigate the presence of squeezing in the weakly repulsive uniform Bose gas, in both the condensate mode and in the nonzero opposite-momenta mode pairs, using two different variational formulations. We explore the U(1) symmetry breaking and Goldstone's theorem in the context of a squeezed coherent variational wavefunction, and present the associated Ward identity. We show that squeezing of the condensate mode is absent at the mean field Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov level and emerges as a result of fluctuations about mean field as a finite volume effect, which vanishes in the thermodynamic limit. On the other hand, the squeezing of the excitations about the condensate survives the thermodynamic limit and is interpreted in terms of density-phase variables using a number-conserving formulation of the interacting Bose gas.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Version 2 (Sept'06): expanded discussion

Breathing mode in the Bose-Hubbard chain with a harmonic trapping potential

We investigate the breathing mode of harmonically trapped bosons in an optical lattice at small site occupancies. The Bose-Hubbard model with a trapping potential is used to describe the breathing-mode dynamics initiated through weak quenches of the trap strength. We connect to results for continuum bosons (Lieb-Liniger and Gross-Pitaevskii results) and also present deviations from continuum physics. We take a spectral perspective, identifying the breathing mode frequency with a particular energy gap in the spectrum of the trapped Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian. We present the low energy eigenspectrum of the trapped many-boson system, and study overlaps of the initial state with eigenstates of the quenched Hamiltonian. There is an intermediate interaction regime, between a "free-boson" limit and a "free-fermion" limit, in which the Bose-Hubbard breathing mode frequency approaches the Gross-Pitaevskii prediction. In addition, we present a striking failure of the time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation for describing breathing modes.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Finite-size scaling of eigenstate thermalization

According to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH), even isolated quantum systems can thermalize because the eigenstate-to-eigenstate fluctuations of typical observables vanish in the limit of large systems. Of course, isolated systems are by nature finite, and the main way of computing such quantities is through numerical evaluation for finite-size systems. Therefore, the finite-size scaling of the fluctuations of eigenstate expectation values is a central aspect of the ETH. In this work, we present numerical evidence that for generic non-integrable systems these fluctuations scale with a universal power law $D^{-1/2}$ with the dimension $D$ of the Hilbert space. We provide heuristic arguments, in the same spirit as the ETH, to explain this universal result. Our results are based on the analysis of three families of models, and several observables for each model. Each family includes integrable members, and we show how the system size where the universal power law becomes visible is affected by the proximity to integrability.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Modulated trapping of interacting bosons in one dimension

We investigate the response of harmonically confined bosons with contact interactions (trapped Lieb-Liniger gas) to modulations of the trapping strength. We explain the structure of resonances at a series of driving frequencies, where size oscillations and energy grow exponentially. For strong interactions (Tonks-Girardeau gas), we show the effect of resonant driving on the bosonic momentum distribution. The treatment is `exact' for zero and infinite interactions, where the dynamics is captured by a single-variable ordinary differential equation. For finite interactions the system is no longer exactly solvable. For weak interactions, we show how interactions modify the resonant behavior for weak and strong driving, using a variational approximation which adds interactions to the single-variable description in a controlled way.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Non-equilibrium dynamics in Bose-Hubbard ladders

Motivated by a recent experiment on the non-equilibrium dynamics of interacting bosons in ladder-shaped optical lattices, we report exact calculations on the sweep dynamics of Bose-Hubbard systems in finite two-leg ladders. The sweep changes the energy bias between the legs linearly over a finite time. As in the experiment, we study the cases of [a] the bosons initially all in the lower-energy leg (ground state sweep) and [b] the bosons initially all in the higher-energy leg (inverse sweep). The approach to adiabaticity in the inverse sweep is intricate, as the transfer of bosons is non-monotonic as a function of both sweep time and intra-leg tunnel coupling. Our exact study provides explanations for these non-monotonicities based on features of the full spectrum, without appealing to concepts (e.g., gapless excitation spectrum) that are more appropriate for the thermodynamic limit. We also demonstrate and study Stueckelberg oscillations in the finite-size ladders.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure

Off-diagonal matrix elements of local operators in many-body quantum systems

In the time evolution of isolated quantum systems out of equilibrium, local observables generally relax to a long-time asymptotic value, governed by the expectation values (diagonal matrix elements) of the corresponding operator in the eigenstates of the system. The temporal fluctuations around this value, response to further perturbations, and the relaxation toward this asymptotic value, are all determined by the off-diagonal matrix elements. Motivated by this non-equilibrium role, we present generic statistical properties of off-diagonal matrix elements of local observables in two families of interacting many-body systems with local interactions. Since integrability (or lack thereof) is an important ingredient in the relaxation process, we analyze models that can be continuously tuned to integrability. We show that, for generic non-integrable systems, the distribution of off-diagonal matrix elements is a gaussian centered at zero. As one approaches integrability, the peak around zero becomes sharper, so that the distribution is approximately a combination of two gaussians. We characterize the proximity to integrability through the deviation of this distribution from a gaussian shape. We also determine the scaling dependence on system size of the average magnitude of off-diagonal matrix elements.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Many-body quantum dynamics of initially trapped systems due to a Stark potential --- thermalization vs. Bloch oscillations

We analyze the dynamics of an initially trapped cloud of interacting quantum particles on a lattice under a linear (Stark) potential. We reveal a dichotomy: initially trapped interacting systems possess features typical of both many-body-localized and self-thermalizing systems. We consider both fermions ($t$-$V$ model) and bosons (Bose-Hubbard model). For the zero and infinite interaction limits, both systems are integrable: we provide analytic solutions in terms of the moments of the initial cloud shape, and clarify how the recurrent dynamics (many-body Bloch oscillations) depends on the initial state. Away from the integrable points, we identify and explain the time scale at which Bloch oscillations decohere