Quantum states and phases in driven open quantum systems with cold atoms

✍ Scribed by Diehl, S.; Micheli, A.; Kantian, A.; Kraus, B.; Büchler, H. P.; Zoller, P.

• Book ID: 109943261
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 353 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1745-2473
• DOI: 10.1038/nphys1073

✦ Synopsis

An open quantum system, the time evolution of which is governed by a master equation, can be driven into a given pure quantum state by an appropriate design of the coupling between the system and the reservoir. This provides a route towards preparing many-body states and non-equilibrium quantum phases by quantum-reservoir engineering. Here, we discuss the example of a driven dissipative Bose-Einstein condensate of bosons and of paired fermions, where atoms in an optical lattice are coupled to a bath of Bogoliubov excitations and the atomic current represents local dissipation. In the absence of interactions, the lattice gas is driven into a pure state with long-range order. Weak interactions lead to a weakly mixed state, which in three dimensions can be understood as a depletion of the condensate, and in one and two dimensions exhibits properties reminiscent of a Luttinger liquid or a Kosterlitz-Thouless critical phase at finite temperature, with the role of the 'finite temperature' taken by the interactions.