Symmetry oscillations in strongly interacting one-dimensional mixtures

Abstract

Multi-component quantum mixtures in one dimension can be characterized by their symmetry under particle exchange. For a strongly-interacting Bose-Bose mixture, we show that the time evolution of the momentum distribution from an initially symmetry-mixed state is quasi-constant for a SU(2) symmetry conserving Hamiltonian, while it displays large oscillations in time for the symmetry-breaking case where inter- and intra-species interactions are different. Using the property that the momentum distribution operator at strong interactions commutes with the class-sum operator, the latter acting as a symmetry witness, we show that the momentum distribution oscillations correspond to symmetry oscillations, with a mechanism analog to neutrino flavour oscillations.