From short-time diffusive to long-time ballistic dynamics: The unusual center-of-mass motion of quantum bright solitons

Weiss, C.; Gardiner, S.A.; Breuer, H.-P.

Abstract

Brownian motion is ballistic on short time scales and diffusive on long time scales. Our theoretical investigations indicate that one can observe the exact opposite—an “anomalous diffusion process” where initially diffusive motion becomes ballistic on longer time scales—in an ultracold atomic system with a size comparable to macromolecules. This system is the center-of-mass motion of a quantum matter-wave bright soliton for which the dominant source of decoherence is three-particle losses. Our simulations show that such unusual center-of-mass dynamics should be observable on experimentally accessible time scales.

Citation

Weiss, C., Gardiner, S., & Breuer, H. (2015). From short-time diffusive to long-time ballistic dynamics: The unusual center-of-mass motion of quantum bright solitons. Physical Review A, 91(6), Article 063616. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.91.063616

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 20, 2015
• Publication Date: Jun 15, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jun 22, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 26, 2015
• Journal: Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Print ISSN: 1050-2947
• Electronic ISSN: 1094-1622
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 91
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: 063616
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.91.063616
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1403242
• Related Public URLs: http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.7633