Paper detail

Thermalization of a quantum Newton's cradle in a one-dimensional quasicondensate

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the quantum Newton's cradle in a one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas in the weakly-interacting quasicondensate regime. This is the opposite regime to the original quantum Newton's cradle experiment of Kinoshita et al. [Nature 440, 900 (2006)], which was realized in the strongly interacting 1D Bose gas. Using finite temperature c-field methods, we calculate the characteristic relaxation rates to the final equilibrium state. Hence, we identify the different dynamical regimes of the system in the parameter space that characterizes the strength of interatomic interactions, the initial temperature, and the magnitude of the Bragg momentum used to initiate the collisional oscillations of the cradle. In all parameter regimes, we find that the system relaxes to a final equilibrium state for which the momentum distribution is consistent with a thermal distribution. For sufficiently large initial Bragg momentum, the system can undergo hundreds of repeated collisional oscillations before reaching the final thermal equilibrium. The corresponding thermalization timescales can reach tens of seconds, which is an order of magnitude smaller than in the strongly interacting regime.