Viscous hydrodynamics from correlated losses

Abstract:Interactions turn a gas into a fluid. We show that two-body loss can take their place. Correlated loss induces elastic scattering, as required by the optical theorem, which dominates at strong loss via the quantum Zeno effect. A nondegenerate gas with only two-body loss thus flows hydrodynamically, with viscosity and thermal conductivity close to those of the unitary Fermi gas. As loss heats the gas, both grow in time with a universal exponent 3/8. Unlike single-particle loss, two-body loss can engineer collisions, and hence transport, in quantum matter.

Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

arXiv:2610.19083 [cond-mat.quant-gas]

(or arXiv:2610.19083v1 [cond-mat.quant-gas] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.19083 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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