Exploring local quantum many-body relaxation by atoms in optical superlattices

Abstract

We establish a setting - atoms in optical superlattices with period 2 - in which one can experimentally probe signatures of the process of local relaxation and apparent thermalization in non-equilibrium dynamics without the need of addressing single sites. This opens up a way to explore the convergence of subsystems to maximum entropy states in quenched quantum many-body systems with present technology. Remarkably, the emergence of thermal states does not follow from a coupling to an environment, but is a result of the complex non-equilibrium dynamics in closed systems. We explore ways of measuring the relevant signatures of thermalization in this analogue quantum simulation of a relaxation process, exploiting the possibilities offered by optical superlattices.

4 pages, 3 figures, version to published in Physical Review Letters

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Breakdown of thermalization in finite one-dimensional systems
• Relaxation of antiferromagnetic order in spin-1/2 chains following a quantum quench
• Quantum Quench from a Thermal Initial State
• Quenches in quantum many-body systems: One-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model reexamined
• Quantum quenches from integrability: the fermionic pairing model
• Exploiting Quench Dynamics in Spin Chains for Distant Entanglement and Quantum Communication
• Magnetism, coherent many-particle dynamics, and relaxation with ultracold bosons in optical superlattices
• Dynamical simulations of charged soliton transport in conjugated polymers with the inclusion of electron-electron interactions