Coherent backscattering in the Fock space of a disordered Bose-Hubbard system

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 [1]. 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 which 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. We furthermore propose a specific experimental setup in order to detect this many-body coherent backscattering phenomenon with ultracold bosonic atoms.

[1] T. Engl, J. Dujardin, A. Argüelles, P. Schlagheck, K. Richter, and J. D. Urbina, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 140403 (2014).