No Arabic abstract
We introduce a novel minimally-disturbing method for sub-nK thermometry in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Our technique is based on the Bose-polaron model; namely, an impurity embedded in the BEC acts as the thermometer. We propose to detect temperature fluctuations from measurements of the position and momentum of the impurity. Crucially, these cause minimal back-action on the BEC and hence, realize a non-demolition temperature measurement. Following the paradigm of the emerging field of textit{quantum thermometry}, we combine tools from quantum parameter estimation and the theory of open quantum systems to solve the problem in full generality. We thus avoid textit{any} simplification, such as demanding thermalization of the impurity atoms, or imposing weak dissipative interactions with the BEC. Our method is illustrated with realistic experimental parameters common in many labs, thus showing that it can compete with state-of-the-art textit{destructive} techniques, even when the estimates are built from the outcomes of accessible (sub-optimal) quadrature measurements.
We propose experimentally feasible means for non-destructive thermometry of homogeneous Bose Einstein condensates in different spatial dimensions ($din{1,2,3}$). Our impurity based protocol suggests that the fundamental error bound on thermometry at the sub nano Kelvin domain depends highly on the dimension, in that the higher the dimension the better the precision. Furthermore, sub-optimal thermometry of the condensates by using measurements that are experimentally feasible is explored. We specifically focus on measuring position and momentum of the impurity that belong to the family of Gaussian measurements. We show that, generally, experimentally feasible measurements are far from optimal, except in 1D, where position measurements are indeed optimal. This makes realistic experiments perform very well at few nano Kelvin temperatures for all dimensions, and at sub nano Kelvin temperatures in the one dimensional scenario. These results take a significant step towards experimental realisation of probe-based quantum thermometry of Bose Einstein condensates, as it deals with them in one, two and three dimensions and uses feasible measurements applicable in current experimental setups.
We study the dynamics of an impurity embedded in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (Bose polaron), by recalling the quantum Brownian motion model. It is crucial that the model considers a parabolic trapping potential to resemble the experimental conditions. Thus, we detail here how the formal derivation changes due to the gas trap, in comparison to the homogeneous gas. We first find that the presence of a gas trap leads to a new form of the bath-impurity coupling constant and a larger degree in the super-ohmicity of the spectral density. This is manifested as a different dependence of the system dynamics on the past history. To quantify this, we introduce several techniques to compare the different amount of memory effects arising in the homogeneous and inhomogeneous gas. We find that it is higher in the second case. Moreover, we calculate the position variance of the impurity, represenitng a measurable quantity. We show that the impurity experiences super-diffusion and genuine position squeezing. Wdetail how both effects can be enhanced or inhibited by tuning the Bose-Einstein condensate trap frequency.
We show that the Kapitza stabilization can occur in the context of nonlinear quantum fields. Through this phenomenon, an amplitude-modulated lattice can stabilize a Bose-Einstein condensate with repulsive interactions and prevent the spreading for long times. We present a classical and quantum analysis in the framework of Gross-Pitaevskii equation, specifying the parameter region where stabilization occurs. Effects of nonlinearity lead to a significant increase of the stability domain compared with the classical case. Our proposal can be experimentally implemented with current cold atom settings.
We study the decay mechanism of the gapped lowest-lying excitation of a quasi-pure box-trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. Owing to the absence of lower-energy modes, or direct coupling to an external bath, this excitation is protected against one-body (linear) decay and the damping mechanism is exclusively nonlinear. We develop a universal theoretical model that explains this fundamental nonlinear damping as a process whereby two quanta of the gapped lowest excitation mode couple to a higher-energy mode, which subsequently decays into a continuum. We find quantitative agreement between our experiments and the predictions of this model. Finally, by strongly driving the system below its (lowest) resonant frequency we observe third-harmonic generation, a hallmark of nonlinear behavior.
We have studied the decay of a Bose-Einstein condensate of metastable helium atoms in an optical dipole trap. In the regime where two- and three-body losses can be neglected we show that the Bose-Einstein condensate and the thermal cloud show fundamentally different decay characteristics. The total number of atoms decays exponentially with time constant tau; however, the thermal cloud decays exponentially with time constant (4/3)tau and the condensate decays much faster, and non-exponentially. We show that this behaviour, which should be present for all BECs in thermal equilibrium with a considerable thermal fraction, is due to a transfer of atoms from the condensate to the thermal cloud during its decay.