Ultracold Bose gases in disorder potentials with spatiotemporal dynamics

TL;DR

This study investigates how ultracold bosonic gases respond to dynamic disorder potentials, revealing the microscopic mechanisms of dissipation and the interplay between superfluidity and time-dependent noise.

Contribution

It provides experimental measurements and a theoretical model of heating and particle loss in ultracold gases under dynamic disorder with tunable correlation times.

Findings

Heating rate depends on disorder correlation time

Particle loss mechanisms vary with superfluid or thermal state

Ultracold atoms serve as a platform for spatiotemporal noise studies

Abstract

We study experimentally the dissipative dynamics of ultracold bosonic gases in a dynamic disorder potential with tunable correlation time. First, we measure the heating rate of thermal clouds exposed to the dynamic potential and present a model of the heating process, revealing the microscopic origin of dissipation from a thermal, trapped cloud of bosons. Second, for Bose-Einstein condensates, we measure the particle loss rate induced by the dynamic environment. Depending on the correlation time, the losses are either dominated by heating of residual thermal particles or the creation of excitations in the superfluid, a notion we substantiate with a rate model. Our results illuminate the interplay between superfluidity and time-dependent disorder and on more general grounds establish ultracold atoms as a platform for studying spatiotemporal noise and time-dependent disorder.