D. M. Gangardt

Suppression of Transport of an Interacting Elongated Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Random Potential

We observe the suppression of the 1D transport of an interacting elongated Bose-Einstein condensate in a random potential with an amplitude that is small compared to the typical energy per atom, dominated by the interaction energy. Numerical calculations reproduce our observations well. We propose a scenario for disorder-induced trapping of the condensate in agreement with our findings.

Dynamics and Bloch oscillations of mobile impurities in one-dimensional quantum liquids

Abstract We study the dynamics of a mobile impurity moving in a one-dimensional quantum liquid. Such an impurity induces a strong, non-linear depletion of the liquid around it. The dispersion relation of the combined object, called depleton, is a periodic function of its momentum with the period 2 π n , where n is the mean density of the liquid. In the adiabatic approximation, a constant external force acting on the impurity leads to the Bloch oscillations of the impurity around a fixed position. Dynamically, such oscillations are accompanied by the radiation of energy in the form of phonons. The ensuing energy loss results in the uniform drift of the oscillation center. We derive exact results for the radiation-induced mobility as well as the thermal friction force in terms of the equilibrium dispersion relation of the dressed impurity (depleton). These results show that there is a wide range of external forces where the (drifted) Bloch oscillations exist and may be observed experimentally.

Local correlations in a strongly interacting one-dimensional Bose gas

We develop an analytical method for calculating local correlations in strongly interacting one-dimensiona l( 1D) Bose gases, based on the exactly solvable Lieb-Liniger model. The results are obtained at zero and finite temperatures. They describe the interaction-induced reduction of local many- body correlation functions and can be used for achieving and identifying the strong-coupling Tonks-Girardeau regime in experiments with cold Bose gases in the 1D regime.

Internal state conversion in ultracold gases.

We consider an ultracold gas of (noncondensed) bosons or fermions with two internal states, and we study the effect of a gradient of the transition frequency between these states. When a pi/2 rf pulse is applied to the sample, exchange effects during collisions transfer the atoms into internal states which depend on the direction of their velocity. This results, after a short time, in a spatial separation between the two states. A kinetic equation is solved analytically and numerically; the results agree well with the recent observations of Lewandowski et al.

Finite-temperature correlations and density profiles of an inhomogeneous interacting one-dimensional Bose gas

We calculate the density profiles and density correlation functions of the one-dimensional Bose gas in a harmonic trap, using the exact finite-temperature solutions for the uniform case, and applying a local density approximation. The results are valid for a trapping potential that is slowly varying relative to a correlation length. They allow a direct experimental test of the transition from the weak-coupling Gross-Pitaevskii regime to the strong-coupling, “fermionic” Tonks-Girardeau regime. We also calculate the average two-particle correlation which characterizes the bulk properties of the sample, and find that it can be well approximated by the value of the local pair correlation in the trap center.

Universal correlations of trapped one-dimensional impenetrable bosons

We calculate the asymptotic behaviour of the one-body density matrix of one-dimensional impenetrable bosons in finite size geometries. Our approach is based on a modification of the replica method from the theory of disordered systems. We obtain explicit expressions for oscillating terms, similar to fermionic Friedel oscillations. These terms are universal and originate from the strong short-range correlations between bosons in one dimension.

Critical velocity of a mobile impurity in one-dimensional quantum liquids

We study the notion of superfluid critical velocity in one spatial dimension. It is shown that, for heavy impurities with mass M exceeding a critical mass Mc, the dispersion develops periodic metastable branches resulting in dramatic changes of dynamics in the presence of an external driving force. In contrast to smooth Bloch oscillations for M<Mc, a heavy impurity climbs metastable branches until it reaches a branch termination point or undergoes a random tunneling event, both leading to an abrupt change in velocity and an energy loss. This is predicted to lead to a nonanalytic dependence of the impurity drift velocity on small forces.

Quantum decay of dark solitons.

Unless protected by the exact integrability, solitons are subject to dissipative forces, originating from a thermally fluctuating background. At low enough temperatures T background fluctuations should be considered as being quantized which enables us to calculate finite lifetime of the solitons τ∼T(-4). We also find that the coherent nature of the quantum fluctuations leads to long-range interactions between the solitons mediated by the superradiation. Our results are of relevance to current experiments with ultracold atoms, while the approach may be extended to solitons in other media.

Correlations in an expanding gas of hard-core bosons

We consider a longitudinal expansion of a one-dimensional gas of hard-core bosons suddenly released from a trap. We show that the broken translational invariance in the initial state of the system is encoded in correlations between the bosonic occupation numbers in the momentum space. The correlations are protected by the integrability and exhibit no relaxation during the expansion.

Bloch Oscillations in a One-Dimensional Spinor Gas

A force applied to a spin-flipped particle in a one-dimensional spinor gas may lead to Bloch oscillations of the particles position and velocity. The existence of Bloch oscillations crucially depends on the viscous friction force exerted by the rest of the gas on the spin excitation. We evaluate the friction in terms of the quantum fluid parameters. In particular, we show that the friction is absent for integrable cases, such as an SU(2) symmetric gas of bosons or fermions. For small deviations from the exact integrability the friction is very weak, opening the possibility to observe Bloch oscillations.