TY  - JOUR
A1  - Trotzky, S.
A1  - Chen, Y-A.
A1  - Flesch, A.
A1  - McCulloch, I. P.
A1  - Schollwöck, U.
A1  - Eisert, J.
A1  - Bloch, I.
T1  - Probing the relaxation towards equilibrium in an isolated strongly correlated one-dimensional Bose gas
JF  - Nature physics
N2  - The problem of how complex quantum systems eventually come to rest lies at the heart of statistical mechanics. The maximum-entropy principle describes which quantum states can be expected in equilibrium, but not how closed quantum many-body systems dynamically equilibrate. Here, we report the experimental observation of the non-equilibrium dynamics of a density wave of ultracold bosonic atoms in an optical lattice in the regime of strong correlations. Using an optical superlattice, we follow its dynamics in terms of quasi-local densities, currents and coherences-all showing a fast relaxation towards equilibrium values. Numerical calculations based on matrix-product states are in an excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental data. The system fulfills the promise of being a dynamical quantum simulator, in that the controlled dynamics runs for longer times than present classical algorithms can keep track of.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS2232
SN  - 1745-2473
VL  - 8
IS  - 4
SP  - 325
EP  - 330
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -