Spontaneous emission and thermalization of cold bosons in optical lattices

J. Schachenmayer*, L. Pollet, M. Troyer, A. J. Daley

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

We study the thermalization of excitations generated by spontaneous emission events for cold bosons in an optical lattice. Computing the dynamics described by the many-body master equation, we characterize equilibration time scales in different parameter regimes. For simple observables, we find regimes in which the system relaxes rapidly to values in agreement with a thermal distribution, and others where thermalization does not occur on typical experimental time scales. Because spontaneous emissions lead effectively to a local quantum quench, this behavior is strongly dependent on the low-energy spectrum of the Hamiltonian, and undergoes a qualitative change at the Mott insulator-superfluid transition point. These results have important implications for the understanding of thermalization after localized quenches in isolated quantum gases, as well as the characterization of heating in experiments.

Original languageEnglish
Article number011601
Number of pages5
JournalPhysical Review A
Volume89
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Jan 2014

Keywords

  • cold bosons
  • optical lattice
  • thermalization

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