Eriko Kaminishi

Exact relaxation dynamics of a localized many-body state in the 1D Bose gas.

Through an exact method, we numerically solve the time evolution of the density profile for an initially localized state in the one-dimensional bosons with repulsive short-range interactions. We show that a localized state with a density notch is constructed by superposing one-hole excitations. The initial density profile overlaps the plot of the squared amplitude of a dark soliton in the weak coupling regime. We observe the localized state collapsing into a flat profile in equilibrium for a large number of particles such as N=1000. The relaxation time increases as the coupling constant decreases, which suggests the existence of off-diagonal long-range order. We show a recurrence phenomenon for a small number of particles such as N=20.

Entanglement pre-thermalization in a one-dimensional Bose gas

A well-isolated system often shows relaxation to a quasi-stationary state before reaching thermal equilibrium. Such a prethermalization [1] has attracted considerable interest recently in association with closely related fundamental problems of relaxation and thermalization of isolated quantum systems [2–5]. Motivated by the recent experiment in ultracold atoms [2], we study the dynamics of a one-dimensional Bose gas which is split into two subsystems, and find that individual subsystems relax to Gibbs states, yet the entire system does not due to quantum entanglement. In view of recent experimental realization on a small well-defined number of ultracold atoms [6], our prediction based on exact few-body calculations is amenable to experimental test.

Thermalization and prethermalization in isolated quantum systems: a theoretical overview

The approach to thermal equilibrium, or thermalization, in isolated quantum systems is among the most fundamental problems in statistical physics. Recent theoretical studies have revealed that thermalization in isolated quantum systems has several remarkable features, which emerge from quantum entanglement and are quite distinct from those in classical systems. Experimentally, well isolated and highly controllable ultracold quantum gases offer an ideal system to study the nonequilibrium dynamics in isolated quantum systems, triggering intensive recent theoretical endeavors on this fundamental subject. Besides thermalization, many isolated quantum systems show intriguing behavior in relaxation processes, especially prethermalization. Prethermalization occurs when there is a clear separation in relevant time scales and has several different physical origins depending on individual systems. In this review, we overview theoretical approaches to the problems of thermalization and prethermalization.

Recurrence Time in the Quantum Dynamics of the 1D Bose Gas

Recurrence time is evaluated for some initial quantum states in the one-dimensional Bose gas with repulsive short-range interactions. In the relatively strong and weak coupling cases some different types of initial states show almost complete recurrence and the estimates of recurrence time are proportional to some powers of the system size at least in some range of the system size. They are much longer than in the case of free particles such as 100 times. In the free-bosonic and free-fermionic regimes we evaluate the recurrence time rigorously, which is proportional to the square of the system size. The estimate of recurrence time is given by the order of ten milliseconds in the corresponding experimental systems of cold atoms trapped in one dimension of ten micrometers in length. It is much shorter than the estimate in a generic quantum many-body system, which may be as long as the age of the universe.

Entanglement prethermalization in an interaction quench between two harmonic oscillators

Entanglement prethermalization (EP) refers to a quasi-stationary nonequilibrium state of a composite system in which each individual subsystem looks thermal but the entire system remains nonthermal due to quantum entanglement between subsystems. We theoretically study the dynamics of EP following a coherent split of a one-dimensional harmonic potential in which two interacting bosons are confined. This problem is equivalent to that of an interaction quench between two harmonic oscillators. We show that this simple model captures the bare essentials of EP; that is, each subsystem relaxes to an approximate thermal equilibrium, whereas the total system remains entangled. We find that a generalized Gibbs ensemble exactly describes the total system if we take into account nonlocal conserved quantities that act nontrivially on both subsystems. In the presence of a symmetry-breaking perturbation, the relaxation dynamics of the system exhibits a quasi-stationary EP plateau and eventually reaches thermal equilibrium. We analytically show that the lifetime of EP is inversely proportional to the magnitude of the perturbation.

Exact quantum dynamics of yrast states in the finite 1D Bose gas

We demonstrate that the quantum dynamics of yrast states in the one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas gives an illustrative example to equilibration of an isolated quantum many-body system. We first formulate the energy spectrum of yrast states in terms of the dressed energy by applying the method of finite-size corrections. We then review the exact time evolution of quantum states constructed from yrast states shown by the Bethe ansatz. In time evolution the density profile of an initially localized quantum state constructed from yrast states collapses into a flat profile in the case of a large particle number such as N = 1000, while recurrence of the localized state occurs in the case of a small particle number such as N = 20. We suggest that the dynamical relaxation behavior for the large N case is consistent with the viewpoint of typicality for generic quantum states: the expectation values of local operators evaluated in most of quantum states are very close to those of the micro-canonical ensemble.