No Arabic abstract
Quantum phases of ultracold bosons with repulsive interactions in lattices in the presence of quenched disorder are investigated. The disorder is assumed to be caused by the interaction of the bosons with impurity atoms having a large effective mass. The system is described by the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian with random on-site energies which have a discrete binary probability distribution. The phase diagram at zero temperature is calculated using several methods like a strong-coupling expansion, an exact numerical diagonalization, and a Bose-Fermi mapping valid in the hard-core limit. It is shown that the Mott-insulator phase exists for any strength of disorder in contrast to the case of continuous probability distribution. We find that the compressibility of the Bose glass phase varies in a wide range and can be extremely low. Furthermore, we evaluate experimentally accessible quantities like the momentum distribution, the static and dynamic structure factors, and the density of excited states. The influence of finite temperature is discussed as well.
In the present paper we describe the properties induced by disorder on an ultracold gas of Bosonic atoms loaded into a two-dimensional optical lattice with global confinement ensured by a parabolic potential. Our analysis is centered on the spatial distribution of the various phases, focusing particularly on the superfluid properties of the system as a function of external parameters and disorder amplitude. In particular, it is shown how disorder can suppress superfluidity, while partially preserving the system coherence.
We investigate a $d$-dimensional model ($d$ = 2,3) for sound waves in a disordered environment, in which the local fluctuations of the elastic modulus are spatially correlated with a certain correlation length. The model is solved analytically by means of a field-theoretical effective-medium theory (self-consistent Born approximation) and numerically on a square lattice. As in the uncorrelated case the theory predicts an enhancement of the density of states over Debyes $omega^{d-1}$ law (``boson peak) as a result of disorder. This anomay becomes reinforced for increasing correlation length $xi$. The theory predicts that $xi$ times the width of the Brillouin line should be a universal function of $xi$ times the wavenumber. Such a scaling is found in the 2d simulation data, so that they can be represented in a universal plot. In the low-wavenumber regime, where the lattice structure is irrelevant there is excellent agreement between the simulation at small disorder. At larger disorder the continuum theory deviates from the lattice simulation data. It is argued that this is due to an instability of the model with stronger disorder.
We report on results of Quantum Monte Carlo simulations for bosons in a two dimensional quasi-periodic optical lattice. We study the ground state phase diagram at unity filling and confirm the existence of three phases: superfluid, Mott insulator, and Bose glass. At lower interaction strength, we find that sizable disorder strength is needed in order to destroy superfluidity in favor of the Bose glass. On the other hand, at large enough interaction superfluidity is completely destroyed in favor of the Mott insulator (at lower disorder strength) or the Bose glass (at larger disorder strength). At intermediate interactions, the system undergoes an insulator to superfluid transition upon increasing the disorder, while a further increase of disorder strength drives the superfluid to Bose glass phase transition. While we are not able to discern between the Mott insulator and the Bose glass at intermediate interactions, we study the transition between these two phases at larger interaction strength and, unlike what reported in arXiv:1110.3213v3 for random disorder, find no evidence of a Mott-glass-like behavior.
During the last decade, many exciting phenomena have been experimentally observed and theoretically predicted for ultracold atoms in optical lattices. This paper reviews these rapid developments concentrating mainly on the theory. Different types of the bosonic systems in homogeneous lattices of different dimensions as well as in the presence of harmonic traps are considered. An overview of the theoretical methods used for these investigations as well as of the obtained results is given. Available experimental techniques are presented and discussed in connection with theoretical considerations. Eigenstates of the interacting bosons in homogeneous lattices and in the presence of harmonic confinement are analysed. Their knowledge is essential for understanding of quantum phase transitions at zero and finite temperature.
We propose to realize the anisotropic triangular-lattice Bose-Hubbard model with positive tunneling matrix elements by using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice dressed by a fast lattice oscillation. This model exhibits frustrated antiferromagnetism at experimentally feasible temperatures; it interpolates between a classical rotor model for weak interaction, and a quantum spin-1/2 $XY$-model in the limit of hard-core bosons. This allows to explore experimentally gapped spin liquid phases predicted recently [Schmied et al., New J. Phys. {bf 10}, 045017 (2008)].