Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes

Understanding the non-equilibrium behavior of quantum systems is a major goal of contemporary physics. Much research is currently focused on the dynamics of many-body systems in lowdimensional lattices following a quench, i.e., a sudden change of parameters. Already such a simple setting poses subst...

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Main Authors: Gribben, Dominic, Lesanovsky, Igor, Gutierrez, Ricardo
Format: Article
Published: American Physical Society 2018
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49145/
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author Gribben, Dominic
Lesanovsky, Igor
Gutierrez, Ricardo
author_facet Gribben, Dominic
Lesanovsky, Igor
Gutierrez, Ricardo
author_sort Gribben, Dominic
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Understanding the non-equilibrium behavior of quantum systems is a major goal of contemporary physics. Much research is currently focused on the dynamics of many-body systems in lowdimensional lattices following a quench, i.e., a sudden change of parameters. Already such a simple setting poses substantial theoretical challenges for the investigation of the real-time post-quench quantum dynamics. In classical many-body systems the Kolmogorov-Mehl-Johnson-Avrami model describes the phase transformation kinetics of a system that is quenched across a first order phase transition. Here we show that a similar approach can be applied for shedding light on the quench dynamics of an interacting gas of Rydberg atoms, which has become an important experimental platform for the investigation of quantum non-equilibrium effects. We are able to gain an analytic understanding of the time-evolution following a sudden quench from an initial state devoid of Rydberg atoms and identify strikingly different behaviors of the excitation growth in the classical and quantum regimes. Our approach allows us to describe quenches near a non-equilibrium phase transition and provides an approximate analytic solution deep in the quantum domain.
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spelling nottingham-491452020-05-04T19:27:58Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49145/ Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes Gribben, Dominic Lesanovsky, Igor Gutierrez, Ricardo Understanding the non-equilibrium behavior of quantum systems is a major goal of contemporary physics. Much research is currently focused on the dynamics of many-body systems in lowdimensional lattices following a quench, i.e., a sudden change of parameters. Already such a simple setting poses substantial theoretical challenges for the investigation of the real-time post-quench quantum dynamics. In classical many-body systems the Kolmogorov-Mehl-Johnson-Avrami model describes the phase transformation kinetics of a system that is quenched across a first order phase transition. Here we show that a similar approach can be applied for shedding light on the quench dynamics of an interacting gas of Rydberg atoms, which has become an important experimental platform for the investigation of quantum non-equilibrium effects. We are able to gain an analytic understanding of the time-evolution following a sudden quench from an initial state devoid of Rydberg atoms and identify strikingly different behaviors of the excitation growth in the classical and quantum regimes. Our approach allows us to describe quenches near a non-equilibrium phase transition and provides an approximate analytic solution deep in the quantum domain. American Physical Society 2018-01-25 Article PeerReviewed Gribben, Dominic, Lesanovsky, Igor and Gutierrez, Ricardo (2018) Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes. Physical Review A, 97 (1). 011603-1-011603-7. ISSN 2469-9934 https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.011603 doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.97.011603 doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.97.011603
spellingShingle Gribben, Dominic
Lesanovsky, Igor
Gutierrez, Ricardo
Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes
title Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes
title_full Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes
title_fullStr Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes
title_full_unstemmed Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes
title_short Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes
title_sort quench dynamics of a dissipative rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regimes
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49145/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49145/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49145/