Damping of Josephson oscillations in strongly correlated one-dimensional atomic gases

We study Josephson oscillations of two strongly correlated one-dimensional bosonic clouds separated by a localized barrier. Using a quantum-Langevin approach and the exact Tonks-Girardeau solution in the impenetrable-boson limit, we determine the dynamical evolution of the particle-number imbalance, displaying an effective damping of the Josephson oscillations which depends on barrier height, interaction strength and temperature. We show that the damping originates from the quantum and thermal fluctuations intrinsically present in the strongly correlated gas. Thanks to the density-phase duality of the model, the same results apply to particle-current oscillations in a one-dimensional ring where a weak barrier couples different angular momentum states

Interaction-induced topological properties of two bosons in flat-band systems

In flat-band systems, destructive interference leads to the localization of non-interacting particles and forbids their motion through the lattice. However, in the presence of interactions the overlap between neighbouring single-particle localized eigenstates may enable the propagation of bound pairs of particles. In this work, we show how these interaction-induced hoppings can be tuned to obtain a variety of two-body topological states. In particular, we consider two interacting bosons loaded into the orbital angular momentum $l=1$ states of a diamond-chain lattice, wherein an effective $\pi$ flux may yield a completely flat single-particle energy landscape. In the weakly-interacting limit, we derive effective single-particle models for the two-boson quasiparticles which provide an intuitive picture of how the topological states arise. By means of exact diagonalization calculations, we benchmark these states and we show that they are also present for strong interactions and away from the strict flat-band limit. Furthermore, we identify a set of doubly localized two-boson flat-band states that give rise to a special instance of Aharonov-Bohm cages for arbitrary interactions

Trapping of Bose-Einstein condensates in a three-dimensional dark focus generated by conical refraction

We present a novel type of three-dimensional dark focus optical trapping potential for ultra-cold atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates. This 'optical bottle' is created with blue-detuned laser light exploiting the phenomenon of conical refraction occurring in biaxial crystals. We present experiments on confining a Rb87 Bose-Einstein condensate in this potential and derive the trapping frequencies and potential barriers under the harmonic approximation and the conical refraction theory

Single atom edge-like states via quantum interference

We demonstrate how quantum interference may lead to the appearance of robust edge-like states of a single ultracold atom in a two-dimensional optical ribbon. We show that these states can be engineered either within the manifold of local ground states of the sites forming the ribbon, or of states carrying one unit of angular momentum. In the former case, we show that the implementation of edge-like states can be extended to other geometries, such as tilted square lattices. In the latter case, we suggest to use the winding number associated to the angular momentum as a synthetic dimension.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Double barrier potentials for matter-wave gap solitons

We investigate collisions of solitons of the gap type, supported by a lattice potential in repulsive Bose-Einstein condensates, with an effective double-barrier potential that resembles a Fabry-Perot cavity. We identify conditions under which the trapping of the entire incident soliton in the cavity is possible. Collisions of the incident soliton with an earlier trapped one are considered too. In the latter case, many outcomes of the collisions are identified, including merging, release of the trapped soliton with or without being replaced by the incoming one, and trapping of both solitons.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Lattice solitons in quasicondensates

We analyze finite temperature effects in the generation of bright solitons in condensates in optical lattices. We show that even in the presence of strong phase fluctuations solitonic structures with well defined phase profile can be created. We propose a novel family of variational functions which describe well the properties of these solitons and account for the non-linear effects in the band structure. We discuss also the mobility and collisions of these localized wave packets.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure