Condensed Matter

The quantum anomalies at the edges correspond to the topological phases in the system, and the chiral edge states can reflect bulk bands' topological properties. In this paper, we demonstrate a simulation of Floquet system's chiral edge states in position shaken finite-size honeycomb optical lattice. Through the periodical shaking, we break the time reversal symmetry of the system, and get the topological non-trivial states with non-zero Chen number. At the topological non-trivial area, we find chiral edge states on different sides of the lattice, and the locations of chiral edge states change with the topological phase. Further, gapless boundary excitations are found to appear at the topological phase transition points. It provides a new scheme to simulate chiral edge states in the Floquet system, and promotes the study of gapless boundary excitations.

The leapfrogging of coaxial vortex rings is a famous effect which has been noticed since the times of Helmholtz. Recent advances in ultra-cold atomic gases show that the effect can now be studied in quantum fluids. The strong confinement which characterizes these systems motivates the study of leapfrogging of vortices within narrow channels. Using the two-dimensional point vortex model, we show that in the constrained geometry of a two-dimensional channel the dynamics is richer than in an unbounded domain: alongsize the known regimes of standard leapfrogging and the absence of it, we identify new regimes of backward leapfrogging and periodic orbits. Moreover, by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for a Bose-Einstein condensate, we show that all four regimes exist for quantum vortices too. Finally, we discuss the differences between classical and quantum vortex leapfrogging which appear when the quantum healing length becomes significant compared to the vortex separation or the channel size, and when, due to high velocity, compressibility effects in the condensate becomes significant.

We identify a (pseudo) relativistic spin-dependent analogue of the celebrated quantum phase transition driven by the formation of a bright soliton in attractive one-dimensional bosonic gases. In this new scenario, due to the simultaneous existence of the linear dispersion and the bosonic nature of the system, special care must be taken with the choice of energy region where the transition takes place. Still, due to a crucial adiabatic separation of scales, and identified through extensive numerical diagonalization, a suitable effective model describing the transition is found. The corresponding mean-field analysis based on this effective model provides accurate predictions for the location of the quantum phase transition when compared against extensive numerical simulations. Furthermore, we numerically investigate the dynamical exponents characterizing the approach from its finite-size precursors to the sharp quantum phase transition in the thermodynamic limit.

We explore coherent multi-photon processes in 87 Rb 133 Cs molecules using 3-level lambda and ladder configurations of rotational and hyperfine states, and discuss their relevance to future applications in quantum computation and quantum simulation. In the lambda configuration, we demonstrate the driving of population between two hyperfine levels of the rotational ground state via a two-photon Raman transition. Such pairs of states may be used in the future as a quantum memory, and we measure a Ramsey coherence time for a superposition of these states of 58(9) ms. In the ladder configuration, we show that we can generate and coherently populate microwave dressed states via the observation of an Autler-Townes doublet. We demonstrate that we can control the strength of this dressing by varying the intensity of the microwave coupling field. Finally, we perform spectroscopy of the rotational states of 87 Rb 133 Cs up to N=6 , highlighting the potential of ultracold molecules for quantum simulation in synthetic dimensions. By fitting the measured transition frequencies we determine a new value of the centrifugal distortion coefficient D v =h×207.3(2) Hz.

We present experiments revealing the competing effect of quantum fluctuations and of a coherent seed in the dynamics of a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate, and discuss the relevance of a mean-field description of our system. We first explore a near-equilibrium situation, where the mean-field equations can be linearized around a fixed point corresponding to all atoms in the same Zeeman state m=0 . Preparing the system at this classical fixed point, we observe a reversible dynamics triggered by quantum fluctuations, which cannot be understood within a classical framework. We demonstrate that the classical description becomes accurate provided a coherent seed of a few atoms only is present in the other Zeeman states m=±1 . In a second regime characterized by a strong non-linearity of the mean-field equations, we observe a collapse dynamics driven by quantum fluctuations. This behavior cannot be accounted for by a classical description and persists for a large range of initial states. We show that all our experimental results can be explained with a semi-classical description (truncated Wigner approximation), using stochastic classical variables to model the quantum noise.

Investigating out-of-equilibrium dynamics with two-dimensional (2D) systems is of widespread theoretical interest, as these systems are strongly influenced by fluctuations and there exists a superfluid phase transition at a finite temperature. In this work, we realise matter-wave interference for degenerate Bose gases, including the first demonstration of coherent splitting of 2D Bose gases using magnetic trapping potentials. We improve the fringe contrast by imaging only a thin slice of the expanded atom clouds, which will be necessary for subsequent studies on the relaxation of the gas following a quantum quench.

In the last 25 years, much progress has been made producing and controlling Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and degenerate Fermi gases. The advances in trapping, cooling and tuning the interparticle interactions in these cold atom systems lead to an unprecedented amount of control that one can exert over them. This work aims to show that knowledge acquired studying cold atom systems can be applied to other fields that share similarities and analogies with them, provided that the differences are also known and taken into account. We focus on two specific fields, nuclear physics and statistical optics. The nuclear physics discussion occurs with the BCS-BEC crossover in mind, in which we compare cold Fermi gases with nuclear and neutron matter and nuclei. We connect BECs and atom lasers through both systems' matter-wave character for the analogy with statistical optics. Finally, we present some challenges that, if solved, would increase our understanding of cold atom systems and, thus, the related areas.

We predict a new mechanism to induce collective excitations and a nonequilibrium phase transition of fermionic superfluids via a sudden switch-on of two-body loss, for which we extend the BCS theory to fully incorporate a change in particle number. We find that a sudden switch-on of dissipation induces an amplitude oscillation of the superfluid order parameter accompanied by a chirped phase rotation as a consequence of particle loss. We demonstrate that when dissipation is introduced to one of the two superfluids coupled via a Josephson junction, it gives rise to a nonequilibrium dynamical phase transition characterized by the vanishing dc Josephson current. The dissipation-induced collective modes and nonequilibrium phase transition can be realized with ultracold fermionic atoms subject to inelastic collisions.

In three dimensions, exotic new state of matter of self-bound ultradilute quantum droplets can be realized in free space, when the mean-field attraction (i.e., with mean-field energy E MF ∝− n 2 at the density n ) is balanced by the repulsive beyond-mean-field quantum fluctuations (i.e., E BMF ∝ n 2+γ ). The parameter γ>0 typically takes the value 1/2 if we consider the Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) energy functional, but it can vary when the beyond-LHY-effect becomes important or the three-body interaction becomes dominant. Here, we theoretically investigate how collective excitations of a three-dimensional quantum droplet are affected by the parameter γ and a weak harmonic trapping potential, both of which could be tuned in experiments. We use both the approximate approach based on a Gaussian variational ansatz and the exact numerical solution of the Bogoliubov equations resulting from the linearized time-dependent extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We show that one of the key features of quantum droplets, i.e., the existence of the surface modes with dispersion relation ω s ∝ k 3/2 is very robust with respect to the changes either in the parameter γ or in the harmonic trapping potential. We predict the excitation spectrum of the droplet realized by binary 39 K mixtures under the typical experimental conditions, which might be readily measured in current cold-atom laboratories.

The collective modes of a quantum liquid shape and impact its properties profoundly, including its emergent phenomena such as superfluidity. Here we present how a two-dimensional Bose gas responds to a moving lattice potential. In particular we discuss how the induced heating rate depends on the interaction strength and the temperature. This study is motivated by the recent measurements of Sobirey {\it et al.} arXiv:2005.07607 (2020), for which we provide a quantitative understanding. Going beyond the existing measurements, we demonstrate that this probing method allows to identify first and second sound in quantum liquids. We show that the two sound modes undergo hybridization as a function of interaction strength, which we propose to detect experimentally. This gives a novel insight into the two regimes of Bose gases, defined via the hierarchy of sounds modes.