From short-time diffusive to long-time ballistic dynamics: the unusual center-of-mass motion of quantum bright solitons

Abstract

Brownian motion is ballistic on short time scales and diffusive on long time scales. Our theoretical investigations indicate that one can observe the exact opposite - an "anomaleous diffusion process" where initially diffusive motion becomes ballistic on longer time scales - in an ultracold atom system with a size comparable to macromolecules. This system is a quantum matter-wave bright soliton subject to decoherence via three-particle losses for which we investigate the center-of-mass motion. Our simulations show that such unusual center-of-mass dynamics should be observable on experimentally accessible time scales.

8 pages, 4 figures, minor revisions