Quantum damping of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam revivals in ultracold Bose gases

Abstract

We propose an experimental scheme for studying the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) phenomenon in a quantum mechanical regime using ultracold atoms. Specifically, we suggest and analyze a setup of one-dimensional Bose gases confined into an optical lattice. The strength of quantum fluctuations is controlled by tuning the number of atoms per lattice sites (filling factor). By simulating the real-time dynamics of the Bose-Hubbard model by means of the exact numerical method of time-evolving block decimation, we investigate the effects of quantum fluctuations on the FPU recurrence and show that strong quantum fluctuations cause significant damping of the FPU oscillation.