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Updated: Jan 14, 2026
11:21
Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving
Published on: March 30, 2017
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Chaotic and quantum dynamics in driven-dissipative bosonic chains.
Filippo Ferrari1,2, Fabrizio Minganti1,2,3, Camille Aron1,4
1Institute of Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Communications Physics
|October 20, 2025
Summary
We explored spatial thermalization in driven quantum systems. A two-stage process was found: rapid phase loss followed by slow amplitude relaxation, creating a "prethermal" hydrodynamic regime.
Area of Science:
- Quantum Many-Body Physics
- Non-equilibrium Quantum Dynamics
Background:
- Thermalization in quantum systems is typically studied over time, with less understanding of its spatial dynamics.
- Driven-dissipative quantum systems, like those in circuit quantum electrodynamics, offer new platforms to study non-equilibrium phenomena.
- Understanding spatial thermalization is crucial for controlling quantum many-body systems.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the spatial aspect of thermalization in a driven Bose-Hubbard chain.
- To probe the dynamical fingerprints of chaos in a non-equilibrium steady state (NESS).
- To identify and characterize novel regimes of protracted spatial thermalization.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing the truncated Wigner approximation to simulate the quantum system.
- Employing semiclassical out-of-time-order correlators to detect chaos.
- Analyzing the Bose-Hubbard model with coherent boundary driving and dissipation.
Main Results:
- A two-stage spatial thermalization was observed: rapid loss of phase coherence near the drive and slower amplitude relaxation over longer distances.
- An extended hydrodynamic regime with anomalous temperature profiles, termed a "prethermal" domain, was identified.
- At stronger drives, a nonthermal, non-chaotic finite-momentum condensate with sub-Poissonian photon statistics emerged.
Conclusions:
- Protracted spatial thermalization can occur in driven-dissipative quantum systems.
- The identified
- prethermal
- regime and finite-momentum condensate represent novel non-equilibrium states.
- Similar mechanisms of spatial thermalization may be relevant for a wide range of extended driven-dissipative systems.
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