Comment on "Large Fluctuations for Spatial Diffusion of Cold Atoms" [arXiv:1701.03357]

TL;DR

This comment critiques a model of cold atom diffusion, highlighting that it predicts infinite temperature and inconsistent diffusion behavior, thus questioning its experimental relevance and the validity of its conclusions.

Contribution

It clarifies the limitations of the discussed model, emphasizing that it predicts unphysical infinite temperature and inconsistent diffusion metrics, challenging prior interpretations.

Findings

Kinetic temperature becomes infinite over time

Spatial distribution width increases sub-ballistically

Variance of particle positions grows super-ballistically

Abstract

A comment on the Letter by E. Aghion, D. Kessler, and E. Barkai, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 260601 (2017). An important criterion on finite kinetic temperature of the system of cold atoms is established. It is shown that the kinetic temperature becomes infinite in Fig. 1 of the commented paper in the course of time, i.e. the considered model system becomes asymptotically infinitely hot. Moreover, within this model the behavior of the squared width of the spatial distribution of atoms at the half of its maximum is very different from the variance of the particle positions. In particular, in the discussed Fig. 1 the former one increases sub-ballistically in time, while the variance grows super-ballistically, which corresponds to a heating phase. This leads to a profound ambiguity in definition and classification of anomalous diffusion. All in all, the model in the commented paper simply does not fit to experiments with cold atoms.