Interplay of dissipation and interactions: particle transport and light-cone propagation of correlations

Dario Poletti, Singapore University of Technology and Design

28.03.2017 at 10:00 

 

Quantum systems in contact with an environment display a rich physics emerging from the interplay between  dissipative and Hamiltonian terms. In the first part of the talk we consider a dissipative boundary driven ladder in  presence of a gauge field.
For non-interacting bosons we show that, depending on the geometry, the currents imposed by the baths can be strongly affected by the gauge field resulting in non- equilibrium phase transitions. In different phases both the magnitude of the current and its spatial distribution are significantly different.
For hard-core bosons instead we show a much weaker dependence of the current on the gauge field and the emergence of negative differential conductivity.
In the second part of the talk we study the dynamics of a bosonic chain deep which undergoes a quench from atomic Mott-insulator to deep within the Mott-insulating regime but under the influence of dissipation. We show how the emerging light-cone propagation of correlations is addected by the dissipation. In particular this results in an effective speed-up of the velocity (with a reduction of the signal) and a change from ballistic to diffusive propagation.

References:
[1] C. Guo, D. Poletti, "Geometry of system-bath coupling and gauge fields in bosonic ladders:
manipulating currents and driving phase transitions", Phys. Rev. A 94, 033610 (2016).
[2] J.-S. Bernier, R. Tan, L. Bonnes, C. Guo, D. Poletti, C. Kollath, "Remnants of light-cone propagation
of correlations in dissipative systems", arxiv:1702.04136 (2017).