Many-Body Decay of the Gapped Lowest Excitation of a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Jinyi Zhang, Christoph Eigen, Wei Zheng, Jake A. P. Glidden, Timon A. Hilker, Samuel J. Garratt, Raphael Lopes, Nigel R. Cooper, Zoran Hadzibabic, and Nir Navon
Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 060402 – Published 12 February 2021
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Abstract

We study the decay mechanism of the gapped lowest-lying axial excitation of a quasipure atomic Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a cylindrical box trap. Owing to the absence of accessible lower-energy modes, or direct coupling to an external bath, this excitation is protected against one-body (linear) decay, and the damping mechanism is exclusively nonlinear. We develop a universal theoretical model that explains this fundamentally nonlinear damping as a process whereby two quanta of the gapped lowest excitation mode couple to a higher-energy mode, which subsequently decays into a continuum. We find quantitative agreement between our experiments and the predictions of this model. Finally, by strongly driving the system below its (lowest) resonant frequency, we observe third-harmonic generation, a hallmark of nonlinear behavior.

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  • Received 23 April 2020
  • Revised 9 December 2020
  • Accepted 11 January 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.060402

© 2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalStatistical Physics & ThermodynamicsNonlinear DynamicsCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Jinyi Zhang1,*, Christoph Eigen1,*,†, Wei Zheng1,2,3,‡, Jake A. P. Glidden1, Timon A. Hilker1, Samuel J. Garratt1,4, Raphael Lopes1,5, Nigel R. Cooper1, Zoran Hadzibabic1, and Nir Navon6

  • 1Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
  • 2Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
  • 3CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
  • 4Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
  • 5Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Collège de France, CNRS, ENS-PSL Research University, Sorbonne Université, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France
  • 6Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA

  • *These two authors contributed equally to this work.
  • ce330@cam.ac.uk
  • zhengwei8796@foxmail.com

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Issue

Vol. 126, Iss. 6 — 12 February 2021

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