Coherent Backscattering in Fock Space: A Signature of Quantum Many-Body Interference in Interacting Bosonic Systems

[en] We predict a generic signature of quantum interference in many-body bosonic systems resulting in a coherent enhancement of the average return probability in Fock space. This enhancement is robust with respect to variations of external parameters even though it represents a dynamical manifestation of the delicate superposition principle in Fock space. It is a genuine quantum many-body effect that lies beyond the reach of any mean-field approach. Using a semiclassical approach based on interfering paths in Fock space, we calculate the magnitude of the backscattering peak and its dependence on gauge fields that break time-reversal invariance. We confirm our predictions by comparing them to exact quantum evolution probabilities in Bose-Hubbard models, and discuss their relevance in the context of many-body thermalization.

Disciplines :

Physics

Author, co-author :

Engl, Thomas

Dujardin, Julien ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de physique > Physique quantique statistique

Argüelles, Arturo

Schlagheck, Peter ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de physique > Physique quantique statistique

Richter, Klaus

Urbina, Juan Diego

Language :

English

Title :

Coherent Backscattering in Fock Space: A Signature of Quantum Many-Body Interference in Interacting Bosonic Systems

Publication date :

2014

Journal title :

Physical Review Letters

ISSN :

0031-9007

eISSN :

1079-7114

Publisher :

American Physical Society, Ridge, United States - New York

Volume :

112

Pages :

140403

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 11 April 2014

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