Dissipative quantum systems: from two to many atoms

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dissipation affects bosonic atoms in a double well, revealing that atom interactions can suppress decoherence and alter its decay from exponential to algebraic as the system size increases.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of atom-atom interactions on decoherence in dissipative quantum systems, highlighting the transition from two-atom to many-atom dynamics.

Findings

Interaction suppresses decoherence in two-atom systems.

Decoherence decay becomes algebraic in many-atom systems.

Atom interactions significantly alter the decoherence process.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of bosonic atoms in a double well potential under the influence of dissipation. The main effect of dissipation is to destroy quantum coherence and to drive the system towards a unique steady state. We study how the atom-atom interaction affects the decoherence process. We use a systematic approach considering different atomic densities. We show that, for two atoms, the interaction already strongly suppresses decoherence: a phenomenon we refer to as "interaction impeded decoherence". For many atoms, thanks to the increased complexity of the system, the nature of the decoherence process is dramatically altered giving rise to an algebraic instead of exponential decay.