Orthogonality catastrophe and decoherence in a trapped-fermion environment

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Ultracold Atomic Gases
• Quantum Dynamics

Background:

• Fermi-edge singularity and Anderson orthogonality catastrophe describe universal physics in quantum systems.
• These phenomena arise from local disturbances in a Fermi sea due to sudden changes in scattering potentials.
• Understanding these effects is crucial for characterizing quantum ground state disturbances.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate and analytically describe the Fermi-edge singularity and Anderson orthogonality catastrophe in ultracold trapped gases.
• To investigate the out-of-equilibrium response of a Fermi sea to an atomic impurity at zero and finite temperatures.
• To connect the transient dynamics of the gas to impurity decoherence and non-Markovian behavior.

Main Methods:

• Development of an analytic description for the out-of-equilibrium response.
• Modeling the system in the controllable domain of ultracold trapped gases.
• Analysis of both zero and finite temperature regimes.

Main Results:

• Successful demonstration of Fermi-edge singularity and Anderson orthogonality catastrophe effects in ultracold gases.
• Provided an analytic framework for the system's non-equilibrium dynamics.
• Established a link between gas transient behavior, impurity decoherence, and non-Markovian dynamics.

Conclusions:

• Ultracold trapped gases provide a controllable platform for observing universal quantum phenomena.
• The study offers insights into the dynamics of quantum systems far from equilibrium.
• The findings contribute to understanding decoherence and non-Markovian effects in interacting quantum gases.