Abstract
We propose an experimental scheme for studying the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) phenomenon in a quantum mechanical regime using ultracold atoms. Specifically, we suggest and analyze a setup of one-dimensional Bose gases confined into an optical lattice. The strength of quantum fluctuations is controlled by tuning the number of atoms per lattice sites (filling factor). By simulating the real-time dynamics of the Bose-Hubbard model by means of the exact numerical method of time-evolving block decimation, we investigate the effects of quantum fluctuations on the FPU recurrence and show that strong quantum fluctuations cause significant damping of the FPU oscillation.
Highlights
Systems of ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices have offered unique possibilities to study nonequilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems [1, 2]
Extreme cleanness and exquisite controllability of cold atom systems have led to experimental realization of various interesting nonequilibrium phenomena, such as the dynamics following the quench across the superfluid (SF)-Mott insulator (MI) transition [3], the significant suppression of transport of one-dimensional (1D) lattice bosons [4, 5], and the nonergodic dynamics ofintegrable 1D Bose gases [6]
In this Letter, we propose an experimental scheme for observing the FPU recurrences with ultracold Bose gases in optical lattices and present the numerical analysis of the corresponding dynamics
Summary
Systems of ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices have offered unique possibilities to study nonequilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems [1, 2]. In order to address the essential question whether the nonlinearity leads to ergodicity, FPU studied dynamics of 1D chains of classical nonlinear oscillators where initially only the first normal mode is excited. When the filling factor is sufficiently large, the Bose-Hubbard (BH) model describing ultracold bosons in an optical lattice exhibits features of the FPU model, such as recurrences and energy localization in q-space.
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