Related papers: Does an isolated quantum system relax?
The connection between the non-equilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems and statistical mechanics is a fundamental open question. It is generally believed that the unitary quantum evolution of a sufficiently complex system…
The relaxation of isolated quantum many-body systems is a major unsolved problem connecting statistical and quantum physics. Studying such relaxation processes remains a challenge despite considerable efforts. Experimentally, it requires…
Understanding relaxation processes is an important unsolved problem in many areas of physics. A key challenge in studying such non-equilibrium dynamics is the scarcity of experimental tools for characterizing their complex transient states.…
Ultracold atomic quantum gases belong to the most exciting challenges of modern physics. Their theoretical description has drawn much from classical field equations. These mean-field approximations are in general reliable for dilute gases…
Time dynamics of isolated many-body quantum systems has long been an elusive subject. Very recently, however, meaningful experimental studies of the problem have finally become possible, stimulating theoretical interest as well. Progress in…
One of the fundamental problems of quantum statistical physics is how an ideally isolated quantum system can ever reach thermal equilibrium behavior despite the unitary time evolution of quantum-mechanical systems. Here, we study, via…
Lack of knowledge about the detailed many-particle motion on the microscopic scale is a key issue in any theoretical description of a macroscopic experiment. For systems at or close to thermal equilibrium, statistical mechanics provides a…
A well-isolated system often shows relaxation to a quasi-stationary state before reaching thermal equilibrium. Such a prethermalization has attracted considerable interest recently in association with closely related fundamental problems of…
The approach to thermal equilibrium, or thermalization, in isolated quantum systems is among the most fundamental problems in statistical physics. Recent theoretical studies have revealed that thermalization in isolated quantum systems has…
The project concerns the interplay among quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, in isolated quantum systems. The underlying goal is to improve our understanding of the concept of thermal equilibrium in quantum systems.…
Equilibrium properties of many-body systems with a large number of degrees of freedom are generally expected to be described by statistical mechanics. Such expectations are closely tied to the observation of thermalization, as manifested…
Advances in controlling and measuring systems of ultra-cold atoms provided strong motivation to theoretical investigations of quantum dynamics in closed many-body systems. Fundamental questions on quantum dynamics and statistical mechanics…
In this thesis, we explore various aspects of equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics for ultracold atomic gases, with a focus on the experimentally realisable one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas. This is a paradigmatic example of an…
We provide experimental evidence of universal dynamics far from equilibrium during the relaxation of an isolated one-dimensional Bose gas. Following a rapid cooling quench, the system exhibits universal scaling in time and space, associated…
In this article, we show that a quantum gas, a collection of massive, non-interacting, indistinguishable quantum particles can be realized as a thermodynamic machine as an artifact of energy quantization and hence bears no classical analog.…
The problem of how complex quantum systems eventually come to rest lies at the heart of statistical mechanics. The maximum entropy principle put forward in 1957 by E. T. Jaynes suggests what quantum states one should expect in equilibrium…
Understanding strongly correlated phases of matter, from the quark-gluon plasma to neutron stars, and in particular the dynamics of such systems, $e.g.$ following a Hamiltonian quench, poses a fundamental challenge in modern physics.…
Cold atomic gases have become a paradigmatic system for exploring fundamental physics, which at the same time allows for applications in quantum technologies. The accelerating developments in the field have led to a highly advanced set of…
Coarsening of an isolated far-from-equilibrium quantum system is a paradigmatic many-body phenomenon, relevant from subnuclear to cosmological lengthscales, and predicted to feature universal dynamic scaling. Here, we observe universal…
Out-of-equilibrium phenomena is a subject of considerable interest in many fields of physics. Ultracold quantum gases, which are extremely clean, well-isolated and highly controllable systems, offer ideal platforms to investigate this…