Journal
NATURE PHYSICS
Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages 325-330Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS2232
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Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [FOR 635, FOR 801]
- European Union (NAMEQUAM, QESSENCE, MINOS, COMPAS)
- European Young Investigator Awards (EURYI)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Optical Lattice Emulator (OLE)
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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.
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