Relaxation Dynamics and Pre-thermalization in an Isolated Quantum System

Details Relaxation Dynamics and Pre-thermalization in an Isolated Quantum System Relaxation Dynamics and Pre-thermalization in an Isolated Quantum System

2011-11-30

arxiv.org/abs/1112.0013v1

Physics

Condensed Matter

Quantum Gases

4 pages, 4 figures

Scientific paper

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. We employ measurements of full quantum mechanical probability distributions of matter-wave interference to study the relaxation dynamics of a coherently split one-dimensional Bose gas and obtain unprecedented information about the dynamical states of the system. Following an initial rapid evolution, the full distributions reveal the approach towards a thermal-like steady state characterized by an effective temperature eight times lower than the initial equilibrium temperature of the system before the splitting process. We conjecture that this state can be described through a generalized Gibbs ensemble and associate it with pre-thermalization.

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