Zero-point excitation of a circularly moving detector in an atomic condensate and phonon laser dynamical instabilities

Year: 2020

Authors: Marino J., Menezes G., Carusotto I.

Autors Affiliation: Harvard Univ, Dept Phys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA; Univ Geneva, Dept Quantum Matter Phys, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland; Johannes Gutenberg Univ Mainz, Inst Phys, D-55099 Mainz, Germany; Univ Massachusetts, Dept Phys, Amherst, MA 01003 USA; Univ Fed Rural Rio de Janeiro, Dept Fis, BR-23897000 Seropedica, RJ, Brazil; Univ Trento, INO CNR BEC, I-38123 Povo, Italy; Univ Trento, Dept Phys, I-38123 Povo, Italy.

Abstract: We study a circularly moving impurity in an atomic condensate for the realization of superradiance phenomena in tabletop experiments. The impurity is coupled to the density fluctuations of the condensate and, in a quantum field theory language, it serves as an analog of a detector for the quantum phonon field. For sufficiently large rotation speeds, the zero-point fluctuations of the phonon field induce a sizable excitation rate of the detector even when the condensate is initially at rest in its ground state. For spatially confined condensates and harmonic detectors, such a superradiant emission of sound waves provides a dynamical instability mechanism, leading to a phonon lasing concept. Following an analogy with the theory of rotating black holes, our results suggest a promising avenue to quantum simulate basic interaction processes involving fast-moving detectors in curved space-times.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH

Volume: 2 (4)      Pages from: 42009-1  to: 42009-6

More Information: I.C. is grateful to Luca Giacomelli and Andrea Vinante for stimulating discussions on the subject of superradiance. J.M. is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 745608 (QUAKE4PRELIMAT). G.M. is supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico-CNPq under Grant No. 310291/2018-6, and Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro-FAPERJ under Grant No. E26/202.725/2018. I.C. acknowledges financial support fr om the Provincia Autonoma di Trento and from the FET-Open Grant MIR-BOSE (No. 737017) and Quantum Flagship Grant PhoQuS (No. 820392) of the European Union.
KeyWords: Quantum; Radiation; Electrons
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.042009

Citations: 11
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