The effect of optical lattice heating on the momentum distribution of a 1D Bose gas

Abstract

We theoretically study how excitations due to spontaneous emission and trap fluctuations combine with elastic collisions to change the momentum distribution of a trapped non-degenerate one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas. Using calculated collisional relaxation rates, we first present a semi-analytical model for the momentum distribution evolution to get insight into the main processes responsible for the system dynamics. We then present a Monte-Carlo simulation that includes features that cannot be handled analytically, and compare its results to experimental data. These calculations provide a baseline for how integrable 1D Bose gases evolve due to heating processes in the absence of diffractive collisions that might thermalize the gases.