Dissipative Binding of Lattice Bosons through Distance-Selective Pair Loss

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how distance-selective two-body loss in ultracold atomic gases within optical lattices induces a novel dissipative binding mechanism, leading to the formation of long-lived, coherent complexes with internal structure.

Contribution

It introduces a new dissipation mechanism that causes binding of particles via non-local loss, a phenomenon not previously observed in such systems.

Findings

Dissipative dynamics lead to formation of long-lived complexes.

Complexes exhibit internal level structure coupled to motion.

Non-local dissipation can induce particle binding.

Abstract

We show that in a gas of ultra cold atoms distance selective two-body loss can be engineered via the resonant laser excitation of atom pairs to interacting electronic states. In an optical lattice this leads to a dissipative Master equation dynamics with Lindblad jump operators that annihilate atom pairs with a specific interparticle distance. In conjunction with coherent hopping between lattice sites this unusual dissipation mechanism leads to the formation of coherent long-lived complexes that can even exhibit an internal level structure which is strongly coupled to their external motion. We analyze this counterintuitive phenomenon in detail in a system of hard-core bosons. While current research has established that dissipation in general can lead to the emergence of coherent features in many-body systems our work shows that strong non-local dissipation can effectuate a binding mechanism for particles.