We investigate a binary mixture of bosonic atoms loaded into a state-dependent honeycomb lattice. For this system, the emergence of a so-called twisted-superfluid ground state was experimentally observed in [Soltan-Panahi et al., Nat. Phys. 8, 71 (20
12)]. Theoretically, the origin of this effect is not understood. We perform numerical simulations of an extended Bose-Hubbard model adapted to the experimental parameters employing the Multi-Layer Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree method for Bosons. Our results confirm the overall applicability of mean-field theory within the relevant parameter range. Beyond this, we provide a detailed analysis of correlation effects correcting the mean-field result. These have the potential to induce asymmetries in single shot time-of-flight measurements, but we find no indication of the patterns characteristic of the twisted superfluid. We comment on the restrictions of our model and possible extensions.
We develop the multi-layer multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (ML-MCTDHB), a variational numerically exact ab-initio method for studying the quantum dynamics and stationary properties of bosonic systems. ML-MCTDHB takes adva
ntage of the permutation symmetry of identical bosons, which allows for investigations of the quantum dynamics from few to many-body systems. Moreover, the multi-layer feature enables ML-MCTDHB to describe mixed bosonic systems consisting of arbitrary many species. Multi-dimensional as well as mixed-dimensional systems can be accurately and efficiently simulated via the multi-layer expansion scheme. We provide a detailed account of the underlying theory and the corresponding implementation. We also demonstrate the superior performance by applying the method to the tunneling dynamics of bosonic ensembles in a one-dimensional double well potential, where a single-species bosonic ensemble of various correlation strengths and a weakly interacting two-species bosonic ensemble are considered.
