Background atoms and decoherence in optical lattices

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how residual background gas affects coherence loss in optical lattices of ultracold atoms, providing exact solutions and discussing the potential for Schrödinger cat states.

Contribution

It introduces an exact solution to the master equation describing background gas effects on coherence in optical lattices, including correlation functions and Schrödinger cat states.

Findings

Exact formulas for correlation functions with one-body losses

Analytic solutions to the master equation

Discussion of Schrödinger cat state existence

Abstract

All experiments with ultracold atoms are performed in the presence of background residual gas. With the help of a suitable master equation we investigate a role of these fast atoms on the loss of coherence in optical lattices. We present an exact solution of the master equation and give the analytic formulas for all correlation functions in the presence of one body losses. Additionally we discuss existing of a Schr\"odinger cat state predicted in this system in [1].