Non-equilibrium strongly-correlated dynamics

<p>We study non-equilibrium and strongly-correlated dynamics in two contexts. We begin by analysing quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium through the lens of cold atomic impurities in Bose gases. Such highly-imbalanced mixtures provide a controlled arena for the study of interactions, d...

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Main Author: Johnson, TH
Other Authors: Jaksch, DH
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
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author Johnson, TH
author2 Jaksch, DH
author_facet Jaksch, DH
Johnson, TH
author_sort Johnson, TH
collection OXFORD
description <p>We study non-equilibrium and strongly-correlated dynamics in two contexts. We begin by analysing quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium through the lens of cold atomic impurities in Bose gases. Such highly-imbalanced mixtures provide a controlled arena for the study of interactions, dissipation, decoherence and transport in a many-body quantum environment.</p> <p>Specifically we investigate the oscillatory dynamics of a trapped and initially highly-localised impurity interacting with a weakly-interacting trapped quasi low-dimensional Bose gas. This relates to and goes beyond a recent experiment by the Inguscio group in Florence. We witness a delicate interplay between the self-trapping of the impurity and the inhomogeneity of the Bose gas, and describe the dissipation of the energy of the impurity through phononic excitations of the Bose gas.</p> <p>We then study the transport of a driven, periodically-trapped impurity through a quasi one-dimensional Bose gas. We show that placing the weakly-interacting Bose gas in a separate periodic potential leads to a phononic excitation spectrum that closely mimics those in solid state systems. As a result we show that the impurity-Bose gas system exhibits phonon-induced resonances in the impurity current that were predicted to occur in solids decades ago but never clearly observed. Following this, allowing the bosons to interact strongly, we predict the effect of different strongly-correlated phases of the Bose gas on the motion of the impurity. We show that, by observing the impurity, properties of the excitation spectrum of the Bose gas, e.g., gap and bandwidth, may be inferred along with the filling of the bosonic lattice. In other words the impurity acts as a probe of its environment.</p> <p>To describe the dynamics of such a strongly-correlated system we use the powerful and near-exact time-evolving block decimation (TEBD) method, which we describe in detail. The second part of this thesis then analyses, for the first time, the performance of this method when applied to simulate non-equilibrium classical stochastic processes. We study its efficacy for a well-understood model of transport, the totally-asymmetric exclusion process, and find it to be accurate.</p> <p>Next, motivated by the inefficiency of sampling-based numerical methods for high variance observables we adapt and apply TEBD to simulate a path-dependent observable whose variance increases exponentially with system size. Specifically we calculate the expected value of the exponential of the work done by a varying magnetic field on a one-dimensional Ising model undergoing Glauber dynamics. We confirm using Jarzynski's equality that the TEBD method remains accurate and efficient. Therefore TEBD and related methods complement and challenge the usual Monte Carlo-based simulators of non-equilibrium stochastic processes.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:55d438cc-d9a1-4898-ac05-49299bad68062022-03-26T16:46:44ZNon-equilibrium strongly-correlated dynamicsThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:55d438cc-d9a1-4898-ac05-49299bad6806Theoretical physicsStochastic processesCondensed matter theoryNumerical analysisAtomic and laser physicsCondensed Matter PhysicsApplications and algorithmsProbability theory and stochastic processesPhysics and CSEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2013Johnson, THJaksch, DHVedral, V<p>We study non-equilibrium and strongly-correlated dynamics in two contexts. We begin by analysing quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium through the lens of cold atomic impurities in Bose gases. Such highly-imbalanced mixtures provide a controlled arena for the study of interactions, dissipation, decoherence and transport in a many-body quantum environment.</p> <p>Specifically we investigate the oscillatory dynamics of a trapped and initially highly-localised impurity interacting with a weakly-interacting trapped quasi low-dimensional Bose gas. This relates to and goes beyond a recent experiment by the Inguscio group in Florence. We witness a delicate interplay between the self-trapping of the impurity and the inhomogeneity of the Bose gas, and describe the dissipation of the energy of the impurity through phononic excitations of the Bose gas.</p> <p>We then study the transport of a driven, periodically-trapped impurity through a quasi one-dimensional Bose gas. We show that placing the weakly-interacting Bose gas in a separate periodic potential leads to a phononic excitation spectrum that closely mimics those in solid state systems. As a result we show that the impurity-Bose gas system exhibits phonon-induced resonances in the impurity current that were predicted to occur in solids decades ago but never clearly observed. Following this, allowing the bosons to interact strongly, we predict the effect of different strongly-correlated phases of the Bose gas on the motion of the impurity. We show that, by observing the impurity, properties of the excitation spectrum of the Bose gas, e.g., gap and bandwidth, may be inferred along with the filling of the bosonic lattice. In other words the impurity acts as a probe of its environment.</p> <p>To describe the dynamics of such a strongly-correlated system we use the powerful and near-exact time-evolving block decimation (TEBD) method, which we describe in detail. The second part of this thesis then analyses, for the first time, the performance of this method when applied to simulate non-equilibrium classical stochastic processes. We study its efficacy for a well-understood model of transport, the totally-asymmetric exclusion process, and find it to be accurate.</p> <p>Next, motivated by the inefficiency of sampling-based numerical methods for high variance observables we adapt and apply TEBD to simulate a path-dependent observable whose variance increases exponentially with system size. Specifically we calculate the expected value of the exponential of the work done by a varying magnetic field on a one-dimensional Ising model undergoing Glauber dynamics. We confirm using Jarzynski's equality that the TEBD method remains accurate and efficient. Therefore TEBD and related methods complement and challenge the usual Monte Carlo-based simulators of non-equilibrium stochastic processes.</p>
spellingShingle Theoretical physics
Stochastic processes
Condensed matter theory
Numerical analysis
Atomic and laser physics
Condensed Matter Physics
Applications and algorithms
Probability theory and stochastic processes
Physics and CS
Johnson, TH
Non-equilibrium strongly-correlated dynamics
title Non-equilibrium strongly-correlated dynamics
title_full Non-equilibrium strongly-correlated dynamics
title_fullStr Non-equilibrium strongly-correlated dynamics
title_full_unstemmed Non-equilibrium strongly-correlated dynamics
title_short Non-equilibrium strongly-correlated dynamics
title_sort non equilibrium strongly correlated dynamics
topic Theoretical physics
Stochastic processes
Condensed matter theory
Numerical analysis
Atomic and laser physics
Condensed Matter Physics
Applications and algorithms
Probability theory and stochastic processes
Physics and CS
work_keys_str_mv AT johnsonth nonequilibriumstronglycorrelateddynamics