Symmetry oscillations in strongly interacting one-dimensional mixtures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how symmetry properties influence the dynamics of strongly interacting one-dimensional quantum mixtures, revealing oscillations in momentum distribution linked to symmetry changes, akin to neutrino flavor oscillations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that symmetry oscillations in momentum distribution are connected to underlying symmetry-breaking interactions, introducing a novel analogy to neutrino flavor oscillations.

Findings

Symmetry-preserving Hamiltonians lead to quasiconstant momentum distributions.

Symmetry-breaking interactions cause large oscillations in momentum distribution.

Momentum distribution oscillations serve as a witness to symmetry dynamics.

Abstract

Multicomponent quantum mixtures in one dimension can be characterized by their symmetry under particle exchange. For a strongly interacting Bose-Bose mixture, we show that the time evolution of the momentum distribution from an initially symmetry-mixed state is quasiconstant for a SU(2) symmetry conserving Hamiltonian, while it displays large oscillations in time for the symmetry-breaking case where inter- and intraspecies interactions are different. Using the property that the momentum distribution operator at strong interactions commutes with the class-sum operator, the latter acting as a symmetry witness, we show that the momentum distribution oscillations correspond to symmetry oscillations, with a mechanism analogous to neutrino flavor oscillations.