Prethermalization in one-dimensional Bose gases: Description by a stochastic Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process

Abstract

We experimentally study the relaxation dynamics of a coherently split one-dimensional Bose gas using matterwave interference. Measuring the full probability distributions of interference contrast reveals the prethermalization of the system to a non-thermal steady state. To describe the evolution of noise and correlations we develop a semiclassical effective description that allows us to model the dynamics as a stochastic Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. © 2013 EDP Sciences and Springer.