696 research outputs found
Dropping cold quantum gases on Earth over long times and large distances
We describe the non-relativistic time evolution of an ultra-cold degenerate
quantum gas (bosons/fermions) falling in Earth's gravity during long times (10
sec) and over large distances (100 m). This models a drop tower experiment that
is currently performed by the QUANTUS collaboration at ZARM (Bremen, Germany).
Starting from the classical mechanics of the drop capsule and a single particle
trapped within, we develop the quantum field theoretical description for this
experimental situation in an inertial frame, the corotating frame of the Earth,
as well as the comoving frame of the drop capsule. Suitable transformations
eliminate non-inertial forces, provided all external potentials (trap, gravity)
can be approximated with a second order Taylor expansion around the
instantaneous trap center. This is an excellent assumption and the harmonic
potential theorem applies. As an application, we study the quantum dynamics of
a cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate in the Gross-Pitaevskii mean-field
approximation. Due to the instantaneous transformation to the rest-frame of the
superfluid wave packet, the long-distance drop (100m) can be studied easily on
a numerical grid.Comment: 18 pages latex, 5 eps figures, submitte
Generation of a superposition of multiple mesoscopic states of radiation in a resonant cavity
Using resonant interaction between atoms and the field in a high quality
cavity, we show how to generate a superposition of many mesoscopic states of
the field. We study the quasi-probability distributions and demonstrate the
nonclassicality of the superposition in terms of the zeroes of the Q-function
as well as the negativity of the Wigner function. We discuss the decoherence of
the generated superposition state. We propose homodyne techniques of the type
developed by Auffeves et al [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 230405 (2003)] to monitor the
superposition of many mesoscopic states.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
Husimi's function and quantum interference in phase space
We discuss a phase space description of the photon number distribution of non
classical states which is based on Husimi's function and does not
rely in the WKB approximation. We illustrate this approach using the examples
of displaced number states and two photon coherent states and show it to
provide an efficient method for computing and interpreting the photon number
distribution . This result is interesting in particular for the two photon
coherent states which, for high squeezing, have the probabilities of even and
odd photon numbers oscillating independently.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, typos correcte
Fresnel Representation of the Wigner Function: An Operational Approach
We present an operational definition of the Wigner function. Our method
relies on the Fresnel transform of measured Rabi oscillations and applies to
motional states of trapped atoms as well as to field states in cavities. We
illustrate this technique using data from recent experiments in ion traps [D.
M. Meekhof et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1796 (1996)] and in cavity QED [B.
Varcoe et al., Nature 403, 743 (2000)]. The values of the Wigner functions of
the underlying states at the origin of phase space are W(0)=+1.75 for the
vibrational ground state and W(0)=-1.4 for the one-photon number state. We
generalize this method to wave packets in arbitrary potentials.Comment: 4 pages include 4 figures, submitted to PR
Exact decoherence to pointer states in free open quantum systems is universal
In this paper it is shown that exact decoherence to minimal uncertainty
Gaussian pointer states is generic for free quantum particles coupled to a heat
bath. More specifically, the paper is concerned with damped free particles
linearly coupled under product initial conditions to a heat bath at arbitrary
temperature, with arbitrary coupling strength and spectral densities covering
the Ohmic, subohmic, and supraohmic regime. Then it is true that there exists a
time t_c such that for times t>t_c the state can always be exactly represented
as a mixture (convex combination) of particular minimal uncertainty Gaussian
states, regardless of and independent from the initial state. This exact
`localisation' is hence not a feature specific to high temperatures and weak
damping limit, but is rather a generic property of damped free particles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Minimal coupling method and the dissipative scalar field theory
Quantum field theory of a damped vibrating string as the simplest dissipative
scalar field investigated by its coupling with an infinit number of
Klein-Gordon fields as the environment by introducing a minimal coupling
method. Heisenberg equation containing a dissipative term proportional to
velocity obtained for a special choice of coupling function and quantum
dynamics for such a dissipative system investigated. Some kinematical relations
calculated by tracing out the environment degrees of freedom. The rate of
energy flowing between the system and it's environment obtained.Comment: 15 pages, no figur
Collective Feshbach scattering of a superfluid droplet from a mesoscopic two-component Bose-Einstein condensate
We examine the collective scattering of a superfluid droplet impinging on a
mesoscopic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) as a target. The BEC consists of an
atomic gas with two internal electronic states, each of which is trapped by a
finite-depth external potential. An off-resonant optical laser field provides a
localized coupling between the BEC components in the trapping region. This
mesoscopic scenario matches the microscopic setup for Feshbach scattering of
two particles, when a bound state of one sub-manifold is embedded in the
scattering continuum of the other sub-manifold. Within the mean-field picture,
we obtain resonant scattering phase shifts from a linear response theory in
agreement with an exact numerical solution of the real time scattering process
and simple analytical approximations thereof. We find an energy-dependent
transmission coefficient that is controllable via the optical field between 0
and 100%.Comment: 4 Latex pages, including 4 figure
Depletion of a Bose-Einstein condensate by laser-iduced dipole-dipole interactions
We study a gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate with laser-induced dipole-dipole
interactions using the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory within the Popov
approximation. The dipolar interactions introduce long-range atom-atom
correlations, which manifest themselves as increased depletion at momenta
similar to that of the laser wavelength, as well as a "roton" dip in the
excitation spectrum. Surprisingly, the roton dip and the corresponding peak in
the depletion are enhanced by raising the temperature above absolute zero.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Thermodynamics and Stability of Flat Anti-de Sitter Black Strings
We examine the thermodynamics and stability of 5-dimensional flat anti-de
Sitter (AdS) black strings, locally asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes
whose spatial sections are AdS black holes with Ricci flat horizons. We find
that there is a phase transition for the flat AdS black string when the AdS
soliton string is chosen as the thermal background. We find that this bulk
phase transition corresponds to a 4-dimensional flat AdS black hole to AdS
soliton phase transition on the boundary Karch-Randall branes. We compute the
possibility of a phase transition from a flat AdS black string to a
5-dimensional AdS soliton and show that, though possible for certain thin black
strings, the transition to the AdS soliton string is preferred. In contrast to
the case of the Schwarzschild-AdS black string, we find that the specific heat
of the flat AdS black string is always positive; hence it is thermodynamically
stable. We show numerically that both the flat AdS black string and AdS soliton
string are free of a Gregory-Laflamme instability for all values of the mass
parameter. Therefore the Gubser-Mitra conjecture holds for these spacetimes.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur
Phase Space Tomography of Matter-Wave Diffraction in the Talbot Regime
We report on the theoretical investigation of Wigner distribution function
(WDF) reconstruction of the motional quantum state of large molecules in de
Broglie interference. De Broglie interference of fullerenes and as the like
already proves the wavelike behaviour of these heavy particles, while we aim to
extract more quantitative information about the superposition quantum state in
motion. We simulate the reconstruction of the WDF numerically based on an
analytic probability distribution and investigate its properties by variation
of parameters, which are relevant for the experiment. Even though the WDF
described in the near-field experiment cannot be reconstructed completely, we
observe negativity even in the partially reconstructed WDF. We further consider
incoherent factors to simulate the experimental situation such as a finite
number of slits, collimation, and particle-slit van der Waals interaction. From
this we find experimental conditions to reconstruct the WDF from Talbot
interference fringes in molecule Talbot-Lau interferometry.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted at New Journal of Physic
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