Background atoms and decoherence in optical lattices

Abstract

All experiments with ultracold atoms are performed in the presence of background residual gas. With the help of a suitable master equation we investigate a role of these fast atoms on the loss of coherence in optical lattices. We present an exact solution of the master equation and give the analytic formulas for all correlation functions in the presence of one body losses. Additionally we discuss existing of a Schr\"odinger cat state predicted in this system in [1].