Creating exotic condensates via quantum-phase-revival dynamics in engineered lattice potentials

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum-phase-revival dynamics in engineered lattice potentials can be used to create exotic non-equilibrium condensate states in ultracold atomic systems, emphasizing the role of trapping potentials.

Contribution

It demonstrates that quantum collapse and revival phenomena in lattice BECs under harmonic confinement can be understood via an effective single-particle theory, enabling new state engineering.

Findings

Quantum revivals are effectively described by single-particle theory.

Engineering lattice potentials allows creation of exotic condensate states.

Trapping potential influences quantum dynamics significantly.

Abstract

In the field of ultracold atoms in optical lattices a plethora of phenomena governed by the hopping energy $J$ and the interaction energy $U$ have been studied in recent years. However, the trapping potential typically present in these systems sets another energy scale and the effects of the corresponding time scale on the quantum dynamics have rarely been considered. Here we study the quantum collapse and revival of a lattice Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in an arbitrary spatial potential, focusing on the special case of harmonic confinement. Analyzing the time evolution of the single-particle density matrix, we show that the physics arising at the (temporally) recurrent quantum phase revivals is essentially captured by an effective single particle theory. This opens the possibility to prepare exotic non-equilibrium condensate states with a large degree of freedom by engineering the underlying spatial lattice potential.