Mesoscopic dynamical differences from quantum state preparation in a Bose-Hubbard trimer

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in a Bose-Hubbard trimer, quantum state preparation can lead to observable dynamical differences that grow with system size, challenging the expectation that quantum effects diminish in larger systems.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental approach showing that quantum effects in a Bose-Hubbard trimer can be amplified and observed through simple measurements, contrary to conventional wisdom.

Findings

Differences in initial state preparation affect dynamics significantly.

Observable dynamical differences increase with system size.

Simple atomic number measurements can detect these quantum effects.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom is that quantum effects will tend to disappear as the number of quanta in a system increases, and the evolution of a system will become closer to that described by mean field classical equations. In this letter we combine newly developed experimental techniques to propose and analyse an experiment using a Bose-Hubbard trimer where the opposite is the case. We find that differences in the preparation of a centrally evacuated trimer can lead to readily observable differences in the subsequent dynamics which increase with system size. Importantly, these differences can be detected by the simple measurements of atomic number.