Breakdown of integrability in a quasi-one-dimensional ultracold bosonic gas

Mazets, I. E.; Schumm, T.; Schmiedmayer, J.

Breakdown of integrability in a quasi-one-dimensional ultracold bosonic gas

Authors

Mazets, I. E.

Schumm, T.

Schmiedmayer, J.

Description

We demonstrate that virtual excitations of higher radial modes in an atomic Bose gas in a tightly confining waveguide result in effective three-body collisions that violate integrability in this quasi-one-dimensional quantum system and give rise to thermalization. The estimated thermalization rates are consistent with recent experimental results in quasi-1D dynamics of ultracold atoms.
4 pages, 3 figures, revtex4