Quantum distillation: Dynamical generation of low-entropy states of strongly correlated fermions in an optical lattice

Journal Article · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.80.041603· OSTI ID:971236

Heidrich-Meisner, F. ^[1]; Manmana, S. R. ^[2]; Rigol, M. ^[3]; Muramatsu, A. ^[4]; Feiguin, A. E. ^[5]; Dagotto, Elbio R ^[6]

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1. Institut fur Physikalische Chemie der RWTH
2. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
3. Georgetown University
4. Universitat Stuttgart, Institute fur Plasmaforschung, Germany
5. University of Maryland
6. ORNL

Correlations between particles can lead to subtle and sometimes counterintuitive phenomena. We analyze one such case, occurring during the sudden expansion of fermions in a lattice when the initial state has a strong admixture of double occupancies. We promote the notion of quantum distillation: during the expansion and in the case of strongly repulsive interactions, doublons group together, forming a nearly ideal band insulator, which is metastable with low entropy. We propose that this effect could be used for cooling purposes in experiments with two-component Fermi gases.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 971236
• Journal Information: Physical Review A, Vol. 80, Issue 4; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
DISTILLATION
ENTROPY
FERMIONS
GASES