Decoherence dynamics in low-dimensional cold atom interferometers

Abstract

We report on a study of the dynamics of decoherence of a matter-wave interferometer, consisting of a pair of low-dimensional cold atom condensates at finite temperature. We identify two distinct regimes in the time dependence of the coherence factor of the interferometer: quantum and classical. Explicit analytical results are obtained in both regimes. In particular, in the two-dimensional case in the classical (long time) regime, we find that the dynamics of decoherence is universal, exhibiting a power-law decay with an exponent, proportional to the ratio of the temperature to the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature of a single 2D condensate. In the one-dimensional case in the classical regime we find a universal nonanalytic time dependence of decoherence, which is a consequence of the nonhydrodynamic nature of damping in 1D liquids. © 2007 The American Physical Society.