Atom transistor from the point of view of nonequilibrium dynamics

We analyze the atom field-effect transistor scheme (Stickney et al 2007 Phys. Rev. A 75 013608) using the standard tools of quantum and classical nonequlilibrium dynamics. We first study the correspondence between the quantum and the mean-field descriptions of this system by computing, both ab initio and by using their mean-field analogs, the deviations from the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis, quantum fluctuations, and the density of states. We find that, as far as the quantities that interest us, the mean-field model can serve as a semi-classical emulator of the quantum system. Then, using the mean-field model, we interpret the point of maximal output signal in our transistor as the onset of ergodicity—the point where the system becomes, in principle, able to attain the thermal values of the former integrals of motion, albeit not being fully thermalized yet. (paper)