Patrizia Vignolo

Shortcut to adiabaticity for an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

We present an investigation of the fast decompression of a three-dimensional (3D) Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) at finite temperature using an engineered trajectory for the harmonic trapping potential. Taking advantage of the scaling invariance properties of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we exhibit a solution yielding a final state identical to that obtained through a perfectly adiabatic transformation, in a much shorter time. Experimentally, we perform a large trap decompression and displacement within a time comparable to the final radial trapping period. By simultaneously monitoring the BEC and the non-condensed fraction, we demonstrate that our specific trap trajectory is valid both for a quantum interacting many-body system and a classical ensemble of non-interacting particles.

Fast optimal transition between two equilibrium states

We demonstrate a technique based on invariants of motion for a time-dependent Hamiltonian, allowing a fast transition to a final state identical in theory to that obtained through a perfectly adiabatic transformation. This method is experimentally applied to the fast decompression of an ultracold cloud of {sup 87}Rb atoms held in a harmonic magnetic trap in the presence of gravity. We are able to decompress the trap by a factor of 15 within 35 ms with a strong suppression of the sloshing and breathing modes induced by the large vertical displacement and curvature reduction of the trap. When compared to a standard linear decompression, we achieve a gain of a factor of 37 on the transition time.

Shortcuts to adiabaticity for trapped ultracold gases

We study experimentally and theoretically the controlled transfer of harmonically trapped ultracold gases between different quantum states. In particular, we experimentally demonstrate a fast decompression and displacement of both a non-interacting gas and an interacting Bose–Einstein condensate, which are initially at equilibrium. The decompression parameters are engineered such that the final state is identical to that obtained after a perfectly adiabatic transformation despite the fact that the fast decompression is performed in the strongly non-adiabatic regime. During the transfer the atomic sample goes through strongly out-of-equilibrium states, while the external confinement is modified until the system reaches the desired stationary state. The scheme is theoretically based on the invariants of motion and scaling equation techniques and can be generalized to decompression trajectories including an arbitrary deformation of the trap. It is also directly applicable to arbitrary initial non-equilibrium states.

Exact particle and kinetic-energy densities for one-dimensional confined gases of noninteracting fermions.

We propose a new method for the evaluation of the particle density and kinetic pressure profiles in inhomogeneous one-dimensional systems of noninteracting fermions, and apply it to harmonically confined systems of up to N = 1000 fermions. The method invokes a Greens function operator in coordinate space, which is handled by techniques originally developed for the calculation of the density of single-particle states from Greens functions in the energy domain. In contrast to the Thomas-Fermi approximation, the exact profiles show negative local pressure in the tails and a prominent shell structure which may become accessible to observation in magnetically trapped gases of fermionic alkali atoms.

Exact solution for the degenerate ground-state manifold of a strongly interacting one-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixture

We present the exact solution for the many-body wavefunction of a one-dimensional mixture of bosons and spin-polarized fermions with equal masses and infinitely strong repulsive interactions under external confinement. Such a model displays a large degeneracy of the ground state. Using a generalized Bose-Fermi mapping, we find the solution for the whole set of ground-state wave functions of the degenerate manifold and we characterize them according to group-symmetry considerations. We find that the density profile and the momentum distribution depends on the symmetry of the solution. By combining the wave functions of the degenerate manifold with suitable symmetry and guided by the strong-coupling form of the Bethe-Ansatz solution for the homogeneous system, we propose an analytic expression for the many-body wave function of the inhomogeneous system which well describes the ground state at finite, large, and equal interaction strengths, as validated by numerical simulations.

Universal contact for a Tonks-Girardeau gas at finite temperature.

We determine the finite-temperature momentum distribution of a strongly interacting 1D Bose gas in the Tonks-Girardeau (impenetrable-boson) limit under harmonic confinement and explore its universal properties associated to the scale invariance of the model. We show that, at difference from the unitary Fermi gas in three dimensions, the weight of its large-momentum tails--given by Tans contact--increases with temperature and calculate the high-temperature universal second contact coefficient using a virial expansion.

Bose-Einstein condensates and the numerical solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation

The achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in ultracold vapors of alkali atoms has accelerated the study of dilute atomic gases in condensed quantum states. This review introduces some key issues in the area.

Light scattering from a degenerate quasi-one-dimensional confined gas of noninteracting fermions

We evaluate the scattering functions of a gas of spin-polarized, noninteracting fermions confined in a quasi-one-dimensional harmonic trap at zero temperature. The main focus is on the inelastic scattering spectrum and on the angular distribution of scattered light from a mesoscopic atomic cloud as probes of its discrete quantum levels and of its shell structure in this restricted geometry. The dynamic structure factor is calculated and compared with the results of a local-density approximation exploiting the spectrum of a one-dimensional homogeneous Fermi gas. The elastic and inelastic contributions to the static structure factor are separately evaluated: the inelastic term becomes dominant as the momentum transfer increases, masking a small peak at twice the Fermi momentum in the elastic term but still reflecting the discrete quantum levels of the cloud. A fast and accurate numerical method is developed to evaluate the full pair distribution function for mesoscopic inhomogeneous clouds.

High-momentum tails as magnetic structure probes for strongly-correlated SU(κ) fermionic mixtures in one-dimensional traps

A universal k −4 decay of the large-momentum tails of the momentum distribution, fixed by Tans contact coefficients, constitutes a direct signature of strong correlations in a short-range interacting quantum gas. Here we consider a repulsive multicomponent Fermi gas under harmonic confinement, as in the experiment of Pagano et al. [Nat. Phys. 10, 198 (2014)], realizing a gas with tunable SU (κ) symmetry. We exploit an exact solution at infinite repulsion to show a direct correspondence between the value of the Tans contact for each of the κ components of the gas and the Young tableaux for the SN permutation symmetry group identifying the magnetic structure of the ground-state. This opens a route for the experimental determination of magnetic configurations in cold atomic gases, employing only standard (spin-resolved) time-of-flight techniques. Combining the exact result with matrix-product-states simulations, we obtain the Tans contact at all values of repulsive interactions. We show that a local density approximation (LDA) on the Bethe-Ansatz equation of state for the homogeneous mixture is in excellent agreement with the results for the harmonically confined gas. At strong interactions, the LDA predicts a scaling behavior of the Tans contact. This provides a useful analytical expression for the dependence on the number of fermions, number of components and on interaction strength. Moreover, using a virial approach, we study the Tans contact behaviour at large temperatures and in the limit of infinite interactions and we show that it increases with the temperature and the number of components. At zero temperature, we predict that the weight of the momentum distribution tails increases with interaction strength and the number of components if the population per component is kept constant. This latter property was experimentally observed in Ref. [Nat. Phys. 10, 198 (2014)].

Density profile of a Bose-Einstein condensate inside a pancake-shaped trap: observational consequences of the dimensional cross-over in the scattering properties

Abstract It is theoretically well known that two-dimensionality of the scattering events in a Bose–Einstein condensate introduces a logarithmic dependence on density in the coupling constant entering a mean-field theory of the equilibrium density profile, which becomes dominant as the s -wave scattering length gets larger than the condensate thickness. We trace the regions of experimentally accessible system parameters for which the cross-over between different dimensionality behaviors in the scattering properties may become observable through in situ imaging of the condensed cloud with varying trap anisotropy and scattering length.