We present analytic and numerical results for a class of monopole solutions to the two-component Gross-Pitaevski equation for a two-species Bose condensate in an effectively two-dimensional trap. We exhibit dynamical instabilities involving vortex production as one species pours through another, from which we conclude that the sub-optical sharpness of potentials exerted by matter waves makes condensates ideal tools for manipulating condensates. We also show that there are two equally valid but drastically different hydrodynamic descriptions of a two-component condensate, and illustrate how different phenomena may appear simpler in each.

Th. Busch J. R. Anglin

Experiments on trapped quantum gases can probe challenging regimes of quantum many-body dynamics, where strong interactions or non-equilibrium states prevent exact solutions. Here we present an exact result which holds even when no exact solutions can be found: a class of spacetime mappings of different experiments onto each other, as long as the gas particles interact via two-body potentials which possess a scaling property that most real interactions do possess. Since our result is an identity relating second-quantized field operators in the Heisenberg picture of quantum mechanics, it is otherwise general; it applies to arbitrary measurements on any mixtures of Bose or Fermi gases, in arbitrary initial states. Practical applications of this mapping include perfect simulation of non-trivial experiments with other experiments which may be easier to perform.

Etienne Wamba Axel Pelster James R. Anglin

The theory of vortex motion in a dilute superfluid of inhomogeneous density demands a boundary layer approach, in which different approximation schemes are employed close to and far from the vortex, and their results matched smoothly together. The most difficult part of this procedure is the hydrodynamic problem of the velocity field many healing lengths away from the vortex core. This paper derives and exploits an exact solution of this problem in the two-dimensional case of a linear trapping potential, which is an idealization of the surface region of a large condensate. It thereby shows that vortices in inhomogeneous clouds are effectively 'dressed' by a non-trivial distortion of their flow fields; that image vortices are not relevant to Thomas-Fermi surfaces; and that for condensates large compared to their surface depths, the energetic barrier to vortex penetration disappears at the Landau critical velocity for surface modes.

J. R. Anglin

We analyze a system consisting of an oscillator coupled to a field. With the field traced out as an environment, the oscillator loses coherence on a very short {\it decoherence timescale}; but, on a much longer {\it relaxation timescale}, predictably evolves into a unique, pure (ground) state. This example of {\it re-coherence} has interesting implications both for the interpretation of quantum theory and for the loss of information during black hole evaporation. We examine these implications by investigating the intermediate and final states of the quantum field, treated as an open system coupled to an unobserved oscillator.

J. R. Anglin R. Laflamme W. H. Zurek J. P. Paz

The magnetic moment of a particle orbiting a straight current-carrying wire may precess rapidly enough in the wire's magnetic field to justify an adiabatic approximation, eliminating the rapid time dependence of the magnetic moment and leaving only the particle position as a slow degree of freedom. To zeroth order in the adiabatic expansion, the orbits of the particle in the plane perpendicular to the wire are Keplerian ellipses. Higher order post-adiabatic corrections make the orbits precess, but recent analysis of this `vector Kepler problem' has shown that the effective Hamiltonian incorporating a post-adiabatic scalar potential (`geometric electromagnetism') fails to predict the precession correctly, while a heuristic alternative succeeds. In this paper we resolve the apparent failure of the post-adiabatic approximation, by pointing out that the correct second-order analysis produces a third Hamiltonian, in which geometric electromagnetism is supplemented by a tensor potential. The heuristic Hamiltonian of Schmiedmayer and Scrinzi is then shown to be a canonical transformation of the correct adiabatic Hamiltonian, to second order. The transformation has the important advantage of removing a $1/r^3$ singularity which is an artifact of the adiabatic approximation.

J. R. Anglin J. Schmiedmayer

The study of environmentally induced superselection and of the process of decoherence was originally motivated by the search for the emergence of classical behavior out of the quantum substrate, in the macroscopic limit. This limit, and other simplifying assumptions, have allowed the derivation of several simple results characterizing the onset of environmentally induced superselection; but these results are increasingly often regarded as a complete phenomenological characterization of decoherence in any regime. This is not necessarily the case: The examples presented in this paper counteract this impression by violating several of the simple ``rules of thumb''. This is relevant because decoherence is now beginning to be tested experimentally, and one may anticipate that, in at least some of the proposed applications (e.g., quantum computers), only the basic principle of ``monitoring by the environment'' will survive. The phenomenology of decoherence may turn out to be significantly different.

J. R. Anglin J. P. Paz W. H. Zurek

Recent work has studied fermion transport through a finite one-dimensional lattice of quantum dots, with localized particle loss from the central lattice site. The dots at each end of the lattice are connected to macroscopic leads, represented as zero-temperature reservoirs of free fermions with a given potential difference. Here we show how this model represents one limiting case of a larger class of models that can be realized with cold quantum gases in optical lattices. While quantum gas realizations allow many system parameters to be varied, we note limitations from finite size effects, and conclude that quantum dots and quantum gases offer complementary views on transport through lossy finite lattices.

J. R. Anglin

The influence functional is derived for a massive scalar field in the ground state, coupled to a uniformly accelerating DeWitt monopole detector in $D+1$ dimensional Minkowski space. This confirms the local nature of the Unruh effect, and provides an exact solution to the problem of the accelerating detector without invoking a non-standard quantization. A directional detector is presented which is efficiently decohered by the scalar field vacuum, and which illustrates an important difference between the quantum mechanics of inertial and non-inertial frames. From the results of these calculations, some comments are made regarding the possibility of establishing a quantum equivalence principle, so that the Hawking effect might be derived from the Unruh effect.

J. R. Anglin

We study environmentally induced decoherence of an electromagnetic field in a homogeneous, linear, dielectric medium. We derive an independent oscillator model for such an environment, which is sufficiently realistic to encompass essentially all of linear physical optics. Applying the ``predictability sieve'' to the quantum field, and introducing the concept of a ``quantum halo'', we recover the familiar dichotomy between background field configurations and photon excitations around them. We are then able to explain why a typical linear environment for the electromagnetic field will effectively render the former classically distinct, but leave the latter fully quantum mechanical. Finally, we suggest how and why quantum matter fields should suffer a very different form of decoherence.

J. R. Anglin W. H. Zurek

We examine the collisional behavior of two-component Fermi gases released at zero temperature from a harmonic trap. Using a phase-space formalism to calculate the collision rate during expansion, we find that Pauli blocking plays only a minor role for momentum changing collisions. As a result, for a large scattering cross-section, Pauli blocking will not prevent the gas from entering the collisionally hydrodynamic regime. In contrast to the bosonic case, hydrodynamic expansion at very low temperatures is therefore not evidence for fermionic superfluidity.

Subhadeep Gupta Zoran Hadzibabic James R. Anglin Wolfgang Ketterle