The BBGKY hierarchy for ultracold bosonic systems

Abstract

We establish a theoretical framework for exploring the quantum dynamics of finite ultracold bosonic ensembles based on the Born-Bogoliubov-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon (BBGKY) hierarchy of equations of motion for few-particle reduced density matrices (RDMs). The theory applies to zero as well as low temperatures and is formulated in a highly efficient way by utilizing dynamically optimized single-particle basis states and representing the RDMs in terms of permanents with respect to those. An energy, RDM compatibility and symmetry conserving closure approximation is developed on the basis of a recursively formulated cluster expansion for these finite systems. In order to enforce necessary representability conditions, two novel, minimal-invasive and energy-conserving correction algorithms are proposed, involving the dynamical purification of the solution of the truncated BBGKY hierarchy and the correction of the equations of motion themselves, respectively. For gaining conceptual insights, the impact of two-particle correlations on the dynamical quantum depletion is studied analytically. We apply this theoretical framework to both a tunneling and an interaction-quench scenario. Due to our efficient formulation of the theory, we can reach truncation orders as large as twelve and thereby systematically study the impact of the truncation order on the results. While the short-time dynamics is found to be excellently described with controllable accuracy, significant deviations occur on a longer time-scale in sufficiently far off-equilibrium situations. Theses deviations are accompanied by exponential-like instabilities leading to unphysical results. The phenomenology of these instabilities is investigated in detail and we show that the minimal-invasive correction algorithm of the equation of motion can indeed stabilize the BBGKY hierarchy truncated at the second order.