Dong, Zhiyu and Moessner, Roderich and Haque, Masudul (2018) Classical dynamics of harmonically trapped interacting particles. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (063106). ISSN 1742-5468

Preview

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Motivated by current interest in the dynamics of trapped quantum gases, we study the microcanonical dynamics of a trapped 1D gas of classical particles interacting via a finite-range repulsive force of tunable strength. We examine two questions whose analogues have been of interest in quantum dynamics: (1) the breathing mode (size oscillation) dynamics of the trapped gas and the dependence of the breathing frequency on the interaction strength, and (2) the long-time relaxation and possible thermalization of the finite isolated gas. We show that the breathing mode frequency has non-monotonic dependence on the magnitude of the mutual repulsion, decreasing for small interactions and increasing for larger interactions. We explain these dependences in terms of slowing-down or speeding-up effects of two-body collision processes. We find that the gas thermalizes within a reasonable finite timescale in the sense of single-particle energies acquiring a Boltzmann distribution, only when the interaction strength is large compared to the energy per particle.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Cite as: Zhiyu Dong et al J. Stat. Mech. (2018) 063106
Keywords:	dynamical processes; molecular dynamics; quantum gases; quantum thermalization;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Mathematical Physics
Item ID:	10557
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-5468/aac741
Depositing User:	Masud Haque
Date Deposited:	21 Feb 2019 16:45
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment
Publisher:	Institute of Physics
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	https://iopscience.iop.org
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads