Quantum Behavior of a Heavy Impurity Strongly Coupled to a Bose Gas

We investigate the problem of an infinitely heavy impurity interacting with a dilute Bose gas at zero temperature. When the impurity-boson interactions are short-ranged, we show that boson-boson interactions induce a quantum blockade effect, where a single boson can effectively block or screen the impurity potential. Since this behavior depends on the quantum granular nature of the Bose gas, it cannot be captured within a standard classical-field description. Using a combination of exact quantum Monte Carlo methods and a truncated basis approach, we show how the quantum correlations between bosons lead to universal few-body bound states and a logarithmically slow dependence of the polaron ground-state energy on the boson-boson scattering length. Moreover, we expose the link between the polaron energy and the spatial structure of the quantum correlations, spanning the infrared to ultraviolet physics.

Automated summary

In this study, the interaction between an infinitely heavy impurity and a dilute Bose gas at zero temperature was investigated. It was found that boson-boson interactions induce a quantum blockade effect, affecting the formation and energy of the polaron. The combination of quantum Monte Carlo methods and truncated basis approach can effectively reveal the quantum correlations between bosons.