Stimulated by the experimental realization of spin-dependent tunneling via gradient magnetic field [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 225301 (2013); Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 185301 (2013)], we investigate dynamics of Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling of
single spin-half particles in a periodic potential under the influence of a spin-dependent constant force. In analogy to the Wannier-Stark system, we call our system as the Wannier-Zeeman system. If there is no coupling between the two spin states, the system can be described by two crossing Wannier-Stark ladders with opposite tilts. The spatial crossing between two Wannier-Stark ladders becomes a spatial anti-crossing if the two spin states are coupled by external fields. For a wave-packet away from the spatial anti-crossing, due to the spin-dependent constant force, it will undergo spatial Landau-Zener transitions assisted by the intrinsic intra-band Bloch oscillations, which we call the Bloch-Landau-Zener dynamics. If the inter-spin coupling is sufficiently strong, the system undergoes adiabatic Bloch-Landau-Zener dynamics, in which the spin dynamics follows the local dressed states. Otherwise, for non-strong inter-spin couplings, the system undergoes non-adiabatic Bloch-Landau-Zener dynamics.
We investigate continuous-time quantum walks of two indistinguishable particles [bosons, fermions or hard-core bosons (HCBs)] in one-dimensional lattices with nearest-neighbor interactions. The results for two HCBs are well consistent with the recent
experimental observation of two-magnon dynamics [Nature 502, 76 (2013)]. The two interacting particles can undergo independent- and/or co-walking depending on both quantum statistics and interaction strength. Two strongly interacting particles may form a bound state and then co-walk like a single composite particle with statistics-dependent walk speed. Analytical solutions for the scattering and bound states, which appear in the two-particle quantum walks, are obtained by solving the eigenvalue problem in the two-particle Hilbert space. In the context of degenerate perturbation theory, an effective single-particle model for the quantum co-walking is analytically derived and the walk seep of bosons is found to be exactly three times of the ones of fermions/HCBs. Our result paves the way for experimentally exploring quantum statistics via two-particle quantum walks.
We investigate continuous-time quantum walks of two indistinguishable particles (bosons, fermions or hard-core bosons) in one-dimensional lattices with nearest-neighbour interactions. The two interacting particles can undergo independent- and/or co-w
alking dependent on both quantum statistics and interaction strength. We find that two strongly interacting particles may form a bound state and then co-walk like a single composite particle with statistics-dependent propagation speed. Such an effective single-particle picture of co-walking is analytically derived in the context of degenerate perturbation and the analytical results are well consistent with direct numerical simulation. In addition to implementing universal quantum computation and observing bound states, two-particle quantum walks offer a novel route to detecting quantum statistics. Our theoretical results can be examined in experiments of light propagations in two-dimensional waveguide arrays or spin-impurity dynamics of ultracold atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices.
