Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds

Abstract The ultimate consequence of quantum many-body physics is that even the air we breathe is governed by strictly unitary time evolution. The reason that we perceive it nonetheless as a completely classical high temperature gas is due to the incapacity of our measurement machines to keep track...

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Autores principales:	Louk Rademaker, Jan Zaanen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/71ba902a05d346489ee867144c08ba69
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:71ba902a05d346489ee867144c08ba692021-12-02T15:05:28ZQuantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds10.1038/s41598-017-06193-02045-2322https://doaj.org/article/71ba902a05d346489ee867144c08ba692017-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06193-0https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The ultimate consequence of quantum many-body physics is that even the air we breathe is governed by strictly unitary time evolution. The reason that we perceive it nonetheless as a completely classical high temperature gas is due to the incapacity of our measurement machines to keep track of the dense many-body entanglement of the gas molecules. The question thus arises whether there are instances where the quantum time evolution of a macroscopic system is qualitatively different from the equivalent classical system? Here we study this question through the expansion of noninteracting atomic clouds. While in many cases the full quantum dynamics is indeed indistinguishable from classical ballistic motion, we do find a notable exception. The subtle quantum correlations in a Bose gas approaching the condensation temperature appear to affect the expansion of the cloud, as if the system has turned into a diffusive collision-full classical system.Louk RademakerJan ZaanenNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-6 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Louk Rademaker Jan Zaanen Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds
description	Abstract The ultimate consequence of quantum many-body physics is that even the air we breathe is governed by strictly unitary time evolution. The reason that we perceive it nonetheless as a completely classical high temperature gas is due to the incapacity of our measurement machines to keep track of the dense many-body entanglement of the gas molecules. The question thus arises whether there are instances where the quantum time evolution of a macroscopic system is qualitatively different from the equivalent classical system? Here we study this question through the expansion of noninteracting atomic clouds. While in many cases the full quantum dynamics is indeed indistinguishable from classical ballistic motion, we do find a notable exception. The subtle quantum correlations in a Bose gas approaching the condensation temperature appear to affect the expansion of the cloud, as if the system has turned into a diffusive collision-full classical system.
format	article
author	Louk Rademaker Jan Zaanen
author_facet	Louk Rademaker Jan Zaanen
author_sort	Louk Rademaker
title	Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds
title_short	Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds
title_full	Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds
title_fullStr	Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds
title_full_unstemmed	Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds
title_sort	quantum thermalization and the expansion of atomic clouds
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/71ba902a05d346489ee867144c08ba69
work_keys_str_mv	AT loukrademaker quantumthermalizationandtheexpansionofatomicclouds AT janzaanen quantumthermalizationandtheexpansionofatomicclouds
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Quantum Thermalization and the Expansion of Atomic Clouds

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