Interaction-impeded relaxation in the presence of finite temperature baths

TL;DR

This paper investigates how finite-temperature baths influence the relaxation dynamics of strongly interacting bosons in a double well, revealing that finite temperature and spectral properties can significantly impede and alter relaxation behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates that finite-temperature baths and specific spectral densities modify the relaxation process, leading to shorter algebraic regimes and lower decay exponents compared to the infinite-temperature case.

Findings

Algebraic relaxation with exponent 1/2 occurs at infinite temperature and instantaneous decay.

Finite temperature and spectral density choices reduce the duration of algebraic relaxation.

Interaction-induced relaxation impediments are stronger and more complex with finite-temperature baths.

Abstract

We study the interplay between interactions and finite-temperature dephasing baths. We consider a double well with strongly interacting bosons coupled, via the density, to a bosonic bath. Such a system, when the bath has infinite temperature and instantaneous decay of correlations, relaxes with an emerging algebraic behavior with exponent 1/2. Here we show that, because of the finite-temperature baths and of the choice of spectral densities, such an algebraic relaxation may occur for a shorter duration and the characteristic exponent can be lower than 1/2. These results show that the interaction-induced impeding of relaxation is stronger and more complex when the bath has finite temperature and/or nonzero timescale for the decay of correlations.