Patricio Leboeuf

Bose-Einstein beams: Coherent propagation through a guide

We compute the stationary profiles of a coherent beam of Bose-Einstein-condensed atoms propagating through a guide. Special emphasis is put on the effect of a disturbing obstacle present in the trajectory of the beam. The obstacle considered (such as a bend in the guide, or a laser field perpendicular to the beam) results in a repulsive or an attractive potential acting on the condensate. Different behaviors are observed when the beam velocity (with respect to the speed of sound), the size of the obstacle (relative to the healing length), and the intensity and sign of the potential are varied. The existence of bound states of the condensate is also considered.

Superfluidity versus Anderson localization in a dilute Bose gas

We consider the motion of a quasi-one-dimensional beam of Bose-Einstein condensed particles in a disordered region of finite extent. Interaction effects lead to the appearance of two distinct regions of stationary flow. One is subsonic and corresponds to superfluid motion. The other one is supersonic and dissipative and shows Anderson localization. We compute analytically the interaction-dependent localization length. We also explain the disappearance of the supersonic stationary flow for large disordered samples.

Localization by bichromatic potentials versus Anderson localization

The one-dimensional propagation of waves in a bichromatic potential may be modeled by the Aubry-Andre Hamiltonian. This, in turn, presents a localization transition that has been observed in recent experiments using ultracold atoms or light. It is shown here that, in contrast to the Anderson model, the localization mechanism has a classical origin, namely it is not due to a quantum suppression of a classically allowed transport process, but rather is produced by a trapping by the potential. Explicit comparisons with the Anderson model as well as with experiments are presented.

Nonlinear Transport of Bose-Einstein Condensates Through Waveguides with Disorder

We study the coherent flow of a guided Bose-Einstein condensate incident over a disordered region of length L. We introduce a model of disordered potential that originates from magnetic fluctuations inherent to microfabricated guides. This model allows for analytical and numerical studies of realistic transport experiments. The repulsive interaction among the condensate atoms in the beam induces different transport regimes. Below some critical interaction (or for sufficiently small L) a stationary flow is observed. In this regime, the transmission decreases exponentially with increasing L. For strong interaction (or large L), the system displays a transition toward a time-dependent flow with an algebraic decay of the time-averaged transmission.

Superfluid Motion of Light

Superfluidity, the ability of a fluid to move without dissipation, is one of the most spectacular manifestations of the quantum nature of matter. We explore here the possibility of superfluid motion of light. Controlling the speed of a light packet with respect to a defect, we demonstrate the presence of superfluidity and, above a critical velocity, its breakdown through the onset of a dissipative phase. We describe a possible experimental realization based on the transverse motion through an array of waveguides. These results open new perspectives in transport optimization.

Solitonic transmission of Bose-Einstein matter waves

We consider a continuous atom laser propagating through a waveguide with a constriction. Two different types of transmitted stationary flow are possible. The first one coincides, at low incident current, with the noninteracting flow. As the incident flux increases, the repulsive interactions decrease the corresponding transmission coefficient. The second type of flow only occurs for sufficiently large incident currents and has a solitonic structure. Remarkably, for any chemical potential there always exists a value of the incident flux at which the solitonic flow is perfectly transmitted.

Dipole oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of defects and disorder.

We consider dipole oscillations of a trapped dilute Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a scattering potential consisting either in a localized defect or in an extended disordered potential. In both cases the breaking of superfluidity and the damping of the oscillations are shown to be related to the appearance of a nonlinear dissipative flow. At supersonic velocities the flow becomes asymptotically dissipationless.

Anderson localization of a weakly interacting one-dimensional Bose gas

We consider the phase coherent transport of a quasi-one-dimensional beam of Bose-Einstein condensed particles through a disordered potential of length L. Among the possible different types of flow we identified [T. Paul, P. Schlagheck, P. Leboeuf, and N. Pavloff, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 210602 (2007)], we focus here on the supersonic stationary regime where Anderson localization exists. We generalize the diffusion formalism of Dorokhov-Mello-Pereyra-Kumar to include interaction effects. It is shown that interactions modify the localization length and also introduce a length scale L* for the disordered region, above which most of the realizations of the random potential lead to time-dependent flows. A Fokker-Planck equation for the probability density of the transmission coefficient that takes this effect into account is introduced and solved. The theoretical predictions are verified numerically for different types of disordered potentials. Experimental scenarios for observing our predictions are discussed.

Thermodynamics of small Fermi systems: quantum statistical fluctuations

Abstract We investigate the probability distribution of the quantum fluctuations of thermodynamic functions of finite, ballistic, phase-coherent Fermi gases. Depending on the chaotic or integrable nature of the underlying classical dynamics, on the thermodynamic function considered, and on temperature, we find that the probability distributions are dominated either (i) by the local fluctuations of the single-particle spectrum on the scale of the mean level spacing, or (ii) by the long-range modulations of that spectrum produced by the short periodic orbits. In case (i) the probability distributions are computed using the appropriate local universality class, uncorrelated levels for integrable systems, and random matrix theory for chaotic ones. In case (ii) all the moments of the distributions can be explicitly computed in terms of periodic orbit theory and are system-dependent, nonuniversal, functions. The dependence on temperature and on number of particles of the fluctuations is explicitly computed in all cases, and the different relevant energy scales are displayed.

Wave-packet dynamics in nonlinear Schrödinger equations

Coherent states play an important role in quantum mechanics because of their unique properties under time evolution. Here we explore this concept for one-dimensional repulsive nonlinear Schrodinger equations, which describe weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensates or light propagation in a nonlinear medium. It is shown that the dynamics of phase-space translations of the ground state of a harmonic potential is quite simple: the centre follows a classical trajectory whereas its shape does not vary in time. The parabolic potential is the only one that satis?fies this property. We study the time evolution of these nonlinear coherent states under perturbations of their shape, or of the confi?ning potential. A rich variety of e?ects emerges. In particular, in the presence of anharmonicities, we observe that the packet splits into two distinct components. A fraction of the condensate is transferred towards uncoherent high-energy modes, while the amplitude of oscillation of the remaining coherent component is damped towards the bottom of the well.