Probing quantum and thermal noise in an interacting many-body system
Author: ["S. Hofferberth","I. Lesanovsky","T. Schumm","A. Imambekov","V. Gritsev","E. Demler","J. Schmiedmayer"]
Publication: Nature Physics
CITE.CC academic search helps you expand the influence of your papers.
Abstract
The probabilistic character of the measurement process is one of the most puzzling and fascinating aspects of quantum mechanics. In many-body systems quantum-mechanical noise reveals non-local correlations of the underlying many-body states. Here, we provide a complete experimental analysis of the shot-to-shot variations of interference-fringe contrast for pairs of independently created one-dimensional Bose condensates. Analysing different system sizes, we observe the crossover from thermal to quantum noise, reflected in a characteristic change in the distribution functions from poissonian to Gumbel type, in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions on the basis of the Luttinger-liquid formalism. We present the first experimental observation of quasi-long-range order in one-dimensional atomic condensates, which is a hallmark of quantum fluctuations in one-dimensional systems. Furthermore, our experiments constitute the first analysis of the full distribution of quantum noise in an interacting many-body system. The analysis of the interference fringes generated by initially independent one-dimensional Bose condensates reveals contributions of both quantum noise and thermal noise, advancing our fundamental understanding of quantum states in interacting many-body systems.
Cite this article
Hofferberth, S., Lesanovsky, I., Schumm, T. et al. Probing quantum and thermal noise in an interacting many-body system. Nature Phys 4, 489–495 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys941
