No abstract

Signatures of quantum transport are expected to quickly vanish as dissipation is introduced in a system. This dissipation can take several forms, including that of particle loss, which has the consequence that the total probability current is not conserved. Here, we study the effect of such losses at a quantum point contact (QPC) for ultracold atoms. Experimentally, dissipation is provided by a near-resonant optical tweezer whose power and detuning control the loss rates for the different internal atomic states as well as their effective Zeeman shifts. We theoretically model this situation by including losses in the Landauer-Büttiker formalism over a wide range of dissipative rates. We find good agreement between our measurements and our model, both featuring robust conductance plateaus. Finally, we are able to map out the atomic density by varying the position of the nearresonant tweezer inside the QPC, realizing a dissipative scanning gate microscope for cold atoms. arXiv:1907.06436v1 [cond-mat.quant-gas]

Three-body recombination in quantum gases is traditionally associated with heating, but it was recently found that it can also cool the gas. We show that in a partially condensed three-dimensional homogeneous Bose gas three-body loss could even purify the sample, that is, reduce the entropy per particle and increase the condensed fraction η. We predict that the evolution of η under continuous three-body loss can, depending on small changes in the initial conditions, exhibit two qualitatively different behaviours -if it is initially above a certain critical value, η increases further, whereas clouds with lower initial η evolve towards a thermal gas. These dynamical effects should be observable under realistic experimental conditions.

The two-fluid model is fundamental for the description of superfluidity. In the nearly incompressible liquid regime, it successfully describes first and second sound, corresponding, respectively, to density and entropy waves, in both liquid helium and unitary Fermi gases. Here, we study the two sounds in the opposite regime of a highly compressible fluid, using an ultracold 39 K Bose gas in a three-dimensional box trap. We excite the longest-wavelength mode of our homogeneous gas, and observe two distinct resonant oscillations below the critical temperature, of which only one persists above it. In a microscopic mode-structure analysis, we find agreement with the hydrodynamic theory, where first and second sound involve density oscillations dominated by, respectively, thermal and condensed atoms. Varying the interaction strength, we explore the crossover from hydrodynamic to collisionless behavior in a normal gas.