Collapse and revivals for systems of short-range phase coherence

Published

October 7, 2014

Author(s)

Khan W. Mahmud, Lei Jiang, Philip R. Johnson, Eite Tiesinga

Abstract

We predict the existence of novel collapse and revival oscillations that are a distinctive signature of the short-range off-diagonal coherence associated with particle-hole pairs in Mott insulator states. Starting with an atomic Mott state in a one-dimensional optical lattice, suddenly raising the lattice depth freezes the particle-hole pairs in place and induces phase oscillations. The peak of the quasi-momentum distribution, revealed through time of flight interference, oscillates between a maximum occupation at zero quasi-momentum (the $\Gamma$ point) and the edge of the Brillouin zone. We find that the population enhancements at the edge of the Brillouin zone is characteristic of coherent particle-hole pairs, and we show similar effects for fermions and Bose-Fermi mixtures in a lattice. Our results open a new avenue for probing strongly correlated many-body states with short-range phase coherence that goes beyond the familiar collapse and revivals previously observed in the long-range coherent superfluid regime.

Citation

New Journal of Physics

Volume

16

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/16/10/103009

Local Download

Keywords

Ultracold atoms, Mott insulators, Quantum dynamics, Strongly correlated matter

Citation

Mahmud, K. , Jiang, L. , Johnson, P. and Tiesinga, E. (2014), Collapse and revivals for systems of short-range phase coherence, New Journal of Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/16/10/103009, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=915567 (Accessed October 12, 2025)