Condensed Matter Theory Seminar

Stefan Natu, University of Maryland / USA

Timescales for Dynamics and Adiabaticity in Optical Lattice bosons
Experiments on ultra-cold atomic gases in optical lattices frequently rely on the ability to dynamically tune the lattice depth, in order to access and probe strong correlations.
Few questions that naturally arise in this context are: what are the timescales for dynamics in optical lattices? Is it possible to maintain adiabaticity following such a lattice ramp?
In this talk I will discuss these questions in a prototypical example of a strongly correlated system: Bosons in an optical lattice.
I show that while the timescale for local dynamics in this system can be significantly shorter than the hopping time, the timescale for global dynamics can be several orders of magnitude larger.
I will discuss how the short timescales for local dynamics call into question the validity of a frequently used probe in cold gases known as band-mapping.
Finally, I will discuss what we can learn by probing the temporal evolution of correlations following a non-adiabatic ramp of system parameters.

Monday, 17.03.14

14:00 h - 15:00 h

Theresienstraße 37