Phase-space mixing in dynamically unstable, integrable few-mode quantum systems

Published

July 5, 2017

Author(s)

Eite Tiesinga, Ranchu Mathew

Abstract

Quenches in isolated quantum systems are currently a subject of intense study. Here, we con- sider quantum few-mode systems that are integrable in their classical mean-field limit and become dynamically unstable after a quench of a system parameter. Specifically, we study a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a double-well potential and an antiferromagnetic spinor BEC constrained to a single spatial mode. We study the time dynamics after the quench within the truncated Wigner approximation (TWA) and find that system relaxes to a steady state due to phase-space mixing. Using the action-angle formalism and a pendulum as an illustration, we derive general analytical expressions for the time evolution of expectation values of observables and their long- time limits. We find that the deviation of the long-time expectation value from its classical value scales as 1/O(ln N ), where N is the number of atoms in the condensate. Furthermore, the relaxation of an observable to its steady state value is a damped oscillation. The damping is Gaussian in time. We confirm our results with numerical TWA simulations.

Citation

Physical Review A

Volume

96

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.96.013604

Keywords

ultracold atoms, integrable systems, quantum dynamics, phase-space mixing

Citation

Tiesinga, E. and Mathew, R. (2017), Phase-space mixing in dynamically unstable, integrable few-mode quantum systems, Physical Review A, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.96.013604 (Accessed October 11, 2025)