Lifetime of the Bose Gas with Resonant Interactions

Rem, Benno S.; Grier, Andrew T.; Ferrier-Barbut, Igor; Eismann, Ulrich; Langen, Tim; Navon, Nir; Khaykovich, Lev; Werner, Félix; Petrov, D. S.; Chevy, Frédéric; Salomon, Christophe

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.110.163202

Cited by 135 publications

(241 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(60 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

230

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…An experimental system may be quenched along this line into the unstable region by suddenly increasing the scattering length up to unitarity via the Feshbach mechanism. If this quench starts from a weakly interacting BEC at very low temperature, the four-body recombination process (that saturates at a rate K 4 $ hl 7 th =m) will dominate the three-body recombination process (that saturates at a rate K 3 $ hl 4 th =m) 11,[33][34][35] , a condition that may be written as nK 4 \K 3 (cf. refs 36,37).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These questions are closely related to the very existence of the unitary Bose gas on time scales larger than its thermalization time. Very recent experimental works indicate that the ultra-cold unitary Bose gas can indeed be stabilized on appreciable time scales 11,14,15 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They were discovered in nuclear physics [2][3][4] , but have also been discussed in quantum magnets 5 , biophysics of DNA 6 and, most importantly, in ultra-cold atomic gases. In these systems, it has become possible to fine-tune both the sign and the value of the pair interactions through the Feshbach mechanism 7 , from a scattering length a close to zero up to the unitary point |a| ¼ N. In current experiments, Efimov trimers have not been seen directly, but their presence has been traced through the variations of the rate at which the gas loses particles as the interactions are scanned through the unitary region [8][9][10][11] .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the macroscopic many-body properties of the unitary Bose gas have remained unknown. The understanding of its thermodynamic behaviour is of great importance, especially as the experimental stability of the unitary Bose gas of cold atoms has been reported for appreciable time scales 11,14,15 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Efimov-driven phase transitions of the unitary Bose gas

Piatecki

Krauth

2014

Nat Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Initially predicted in nuclear physics, Efimov trimers are bound configurations of three quantum particles that fall apart when any one of them is removed. They open a window into a rich quantum world that has become the focus of intense experimental and theoretical research, as the region of 'unitary' interactions, where Efimov trimers form, is now accessible in cold-atom experiments. Here we use a path-integral Monte Carlo algorithm backed up by theoretical arguments to show that unitary bosons undergo a first-order phase transition from a normal gas to a superfluid Efimov liquid, bound by the same effects as Efimov trimers. A triple point separates these two phases and another superfluid phase, the conventional Bose-Einstein condensate, whose coexistence line with the Efimov liquid ends in a critical point. We discuss the prospects of observing the proposed phase transitions in cold-atom systems.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Efimov-driven phase transitions of the unitary Bose gas

Piatecki

Krauth

2014

Nat Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For bosonic atoms, however, this route to strong interactions is stymied by the fact that three-body inelastic collisions increase as a to the fourth power [21][22][23]. This circumstance has limited experimental investigation of Bose gases with increasing interaction strength to studying either non-quantum-degenerate gases [24,25] or BECs with modest interaction strengths (na 3 < 0.008, where n is the atom number density) [9][10][11][12].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal dynamics of a degenerate unitary Bose gas

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

From neutron stars to high-temperature superconductors, strongly interacting many-body systems at or near quantum degeneracy are a rich source of intriguing phenomena. The microscopic structure of the first-discovered quantum fluid, superfluid liquid helium, is difficult to access due to limited experimental probes. While an ultracold atomic Bose gas with tunable interactions (characterized by its scattering length, a) had been proposed as an alternative strongly interacting Bose system [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] , experimental progress [9][10][11][12] has been limited by its short lifetime. Here we present time-resolved measurements of the momentum distribution of a Bose-condensed gas that is suddenly jumped to unitarity, i.e. to a = ∞. Contrary to expectation, we observe that the gas lives long enough to permit the momentum to evolve to a quasi-steady-state distribution, consistent with universality, while remaining degenerate. Investigations of the time evolution of this unitary Bose gas may lead to a deeper understanding of quantum many-body physics.A powerful feature of atom gas experiments that provides access to these new regimes is the ability to change the interaction strength using a magnetic-field Feshbach resonance [13]. In particular, at the resonance location, a is infinite. For atomic Fermi gases [14][15][16][17][18][19][20], accessing this regime by adiabatically changing a led to the achievement of superfluids of paired fermions and enabled investigation of the crossover from superfluidity of weakly bound pairs, analogous to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductors, to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of tightly bound molecules [16,17]. For bosonic atoms, however, this route to strong interactions is stymied by the fact that three-body inelastic collisions increase as a to the fourth power [21][22][23]. This circumstance has limited experimental investigation of Bose gases with increasing interaction strength to studying either non-quantum-degenerate gases [24,25] or BECs with modest interaction strengths (na 3 < 0.008, where n is the atom number density) [9][10][11][12].The problem is that the loss rate scales as n 2 a 4 while the equilibration rate scales as na 2 v, where v is the average velocity. Thus, it would seem that the losses will always dominate as a is increased to ∞. Even if we were to forsake thermal equilibrium and suddenly change a in order to project a weakly interacting BEC onto strong interactions [12,[26][27][28], one might expect that three-body losses would still dominate the ensuing dynamics for large a. In this work, however, we use this approach to take a BEC to the unitary gas regime, and we observe dynamics that in fact saturate on a timescale shorter than that set by three-body losses and that exhibit universal scaling with density.

show abstract

Near Threshold Effects on Recombination and Vibrational Relaxation in Efimov Systems

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigate the energy dependence of inelastic processes in systems which possess Efimov states. We consider the three-body recombination rate K3 where three free atoms interact to produce an atom-dimer pair, and the relaxation rate K rel where an atom quenches a weakly bound state of a dimer near an Efimov resonance to more deeply bound levels. Using a model capturing the key features of the Efimov problem, we identify new energy regimes for K3, namely the NTR (Near Threshold Resonance) regime behavior E −2 for negative scattering lengths and the NTS (Near Threshold Suppression) regime behavior E 2 for positive scattering lengths. We also confirm a previously found oscillatory behavior of K3 at higher energy E. Finally, we find that K rel behaves as E −1 in the NTR regime.

show abstract

Lifetime of the Bose Gas with Resonant Interactions

Cited by 135 publications

References 35 publications

Efimov-driven phase transitions of the unitary Bose gas

Efimov-driven phase transitions of the unitary Bose gas

Universal dynamics of a degenerate unitary Bose gas

Near Threshold Effects on Recombination and Vibrational Relaxation in Efimov Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About