Interaction-induced decoherence of atomic Bloch oscillations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that interactions in the Bose-Hubbard model under a static field lead to quantum chaos, causing irreversible decay of Bloch oscillations and serving as a Hamiltonian model for interaction-induced decoherence.

Contribution

It introduces a Hamiltonian model showing how interactions induce quantum chaos and decoherence in atomic Bloch oscillations.

Findings

Energy spectrum exhibits Wigner-Dyson level statistics.

Bloch oscillations decay irreversibly due to quantum chaos.

Provides a Hamiltonian framework for interaction-induced decoherence.

Abstract

We show that the energy spectrum of the Bose-Hubbard model amended by a static field exhibits Wigner-Dyson level statistics. In itself a characteristic signature of quantum chaos, this induces the irreversible decay of Bloch oscillations of cold, interacting atoms loaded into an optical lattice, and provides a Hamiltonian model for interaction induced decoherence.