Self-similar non-equilibrium dynamics of a many-body system with power-law interactions

Gutierrez, Ricardo; Garrahan, Juan P.; Lesanovsky, Igor

Abstract

The influence of power-law interactions on the dynamics of many-body systems far from equilibrium is much less explored than their effect on static and thermodynamic properties. To gain insight into this problem we introduce and analyze here an out-of-equilibrium deposition process in which the deposition rate of a given particle depends as a power-law on the distance to previously deposited particles. This model draws its relevance from recent experimental progress in the domain of cold atomic gases which are studied in a setting where atoms that are excited to high-lying Rydberg states interact through power-law potentials that translate into power-law excitation rates. The out-of-equilibrium dynamics of this system turns out to be surprisingly rich. It features a self-similar evolution which leads to a characteristic power-law time dependence of observables such as the particle concentration, and results in a scale invariance of the structure factor. Our findings show that in dissipative Rydberg gases out of equilibrium the characteristic distance among excitations --- often referred to as the blockade radius --- is not a static but rather a dynamic quantity.

Citation

Gutierrez, R., Garrahan, J. P., & Lesanovsky, I. (2015). Self-similar non-equilibrium dynamics of a many-body system with power-law interactions. Physical Review E, 92(6), Article e062144. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.062144

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 28, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jan 7, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 7, 2016
• Journal: Physical Review E
• Print ISSN: 2470-0045
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0053
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 92
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: e062144
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.062144
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/768611
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.062144