Decay of symmetry-protected quantum states

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum fluctuations cause decay of symmetry-protected states in a Bose-Hubbard chain, revealing that such states are metastable at finite interactions despite classical stability.

Contribution

It demonstrates that symmetry-protected quantum states in a Bose-Hubbard chain are metastable due to quantum fluctuations, contrasting classical predictions of stability.

Findings

Quantum fluctuations induce decay of symmetry-protected states.

Symmetry-protected states are metastable at finite interactions.

Classical stability does not guarantee quantum stability.

Abstract

We study the decay of bosonic many-body states in the three well Bose-Hubbard chain where bosons in the central well can escape into a reservoir. For vanishing inter-particle interaction this system supports a non-decaying many-body state which is the antisymmetric Bose-Einstein condensate with particles occupying only the edge wells. In the classical approach this quantum state corresponds to a symmetry protected non-decaying state which is stable even at finite interaction below a certain intensity threshold. Here we demonstrate that despite the classical counterpart is stable the antisymmetric Bose-Einstein condensate is always metastable at finite interatomic interactions due to quantum fluctuations.