Nonlinear speed-ups in ultracold quantum gases

Abstract

Quantum mechanics is an inherently linear theory. However, collective effects in many body quantum systems can give rise to effectively nonlinear dynamics. In the present work, we analyze whether and to what extent such nonlinear effects can be exploited to enhance the rate of quantum evolution. To this end, we compute a suitable version of the quantum speed limit for numerical and analytical examples. We find that the quantum speed limit grows with the strength of the nonlinearity, yet it does not trivially scale with the “degree” of nonlinearity. This is numerically demonstrated for the parametric harmonic oscillator obeying Gross-Pitaevskii and Kolomeisky dynamics, and analytically for expanding boxes under Gross-Pitaevskii dynamics.