We study the evolution of the energy gap in a unitary Fermi gas as a function of temperature. To this end we approximate the Fermi gas by the Hubbard lattice Hamiltonian and solve using the dynamical mean-field approximation. We have found that below the critical temperature, Tc, the system is a superfluid and the energy gap is decreasing monotonously. For temperatures above Tc the system is an insulator and the corresponding energy gap is monotonously increasing.
We consider a realization of the two-species bosonic Hubbard model with variable interspecies interaction and hopping strength. We analyze the superfluid-insulator (SI) transition for the relevant parameter regimes and compute the ground state phase diagram for odd filling at commensurate densities. We find that in contrast to the even commensurate filling case, the superfluid-insulator transition occurs with (a) simultaneous onset of superfluidity of both species or (b) coexistence of Mott insulating state of one species and superfluidity of the other or, in the case of unit filling, (c) comp…
We study the superfluid-Mott insulator transition of antiferromagnetic spin-1 bosons in an optical lattice described by a Bose-Hubbard model. Our variational study with the Gutzwiller-type trial wave function determines that the superfluid-Mott insulator transition is a first-order one at a part of the phase boundary curve, contrary to the spinless case. This first-order transition may be observed through an experiment, such as a Stern-Gerlach type, under a magnetic field.
We study the insulator-superfluid transition of spin-1 bosons in an optical lattice in a uniform magnetic field. Based on a mean-field approximation we obtained a zero-temperature phase diagram. We found that depending on the particle number the transition for bosons with antiferromagnetic interaction may occur into different superfluid phases with spins aligned along or opposite to the field direction. This is qualitatively different from the field-free transition for which the mean-field theory predicts a unique (polar) superfluid state for any particle number.
We study the effects of interaction between bosons and fermions in a Bose-Fermi mixtures loaded in an optical lattice. We concentrate on the destruction of a bosonic Mott phase driven by repulsive interaction between bosons and fermions. Once the Mott phase is destroyed, the system enters a superfluid phase where the movements of bosons and fermions are correlated. We show that this phase has simultaneously correlations reminiscent of a conventional superfluid and of a pseudo-spin density wave order.
We study Mott insulator - superfluid transition in a two-band boson Hubbard model, which can be mapped onto a spin-1/2 XY model with spins coupled to an additional Ising degree of freedom. By using a modified mean field theory that include the effects of phase fluctuations, we show that the transition is first order at both zero and finite temperatures. On the Mott insulator side, there may be reentrance in phase transition. These features are consequences of the underlying transition between competing defect poor and defect rich phases. The relevance of the model and our results to supersolid…
We study the superfluid to Mott-insulator (SF-MI) transition of hardcore bosons in commensurate superlattices in two and three dimensions. We focus on the special case where the superlattice has period two and the system is at half filling. We obtain exact numerical results by using the stochastic series expansion (SSE) algorithm, and compute various properties of the system, such as the ground-state energy, the fraction of bosons in the zero-momentum mode, the superfluid density, and the compressibility. With finite-size scaling, we find the critical points of the phase transition. We also ex…
We study the ground state phases of Bose-Fermi mixtures in one-dimensional optical lattices with quantum Monte Carlo simulations using the Canonical Worm algorithm. Depending on the filling of bosons and fermions, and the on-site intra- and inter-species interaction, different kinds of incompressible and superfluid phases appear. On the compressible side, correlations between bosons and fermions can lead to a distinctive behavior of the bosonic superfluid density and the fermionic stiffness, as well as of the equal-time Green functions, which allow one to identify regions where the two species…
We study the phase diagram of ultracold bosons in an optical lattice near a Feshbach resonance. Depending on the boson density, the strength of the optical lattice potential and the detuning from resonance, the ground state can be a Mott insulator, a superfluid phase with both an atomic and a molecular condensate, or a superfluid phase with only a molecular condensate. Mott insulator to superfluid transitions can be induced either by decreasing the strength of the optical lattice potential or by varying the detuning from the Feshbach resonance. Quite generally, we find that for a commensurate …
Mott insulator to superfluid quenches have been used by recent experiments to generate exotic superfluid phases. While the final Hamiltonian following the sudden quench is that of a superfluid, it is not a priori clear how close the final state of the system approaches the ground state of the superfluid Hamiltonian. To understand the nature of the final state we calculate the temporal evolution of the momentum distribution following a Mott insulator to superfluid quench. Using the numerical infinite time-evolving block decimation approach and the analytical rotor model approximation we establi…
We predict a dynammical classical superfluid-insulator transition (CSIT) in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in an optical and a magnetic potential. In the tight-binding limit, this system realizes an array of weakly-coupled condensates driven by an external harmonic field. For small displacements of the parabolic trap about the equilibrium position, the BEC center of mass oscillates with the relative phases of neighbouring condensates locked at the same (oscillating) value. For large displacements, the BEC remains localized on the side of the harmonic trap. This is caused by a randomi…
The quantum phase transition point between the insulator and the superfluid phase at unit filling factor of the infinite one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model is numerically computed with a high accuracy, better than current state of the art calculations. The method uses the infinite system version of the time evolving block decimation algorithm, here tested in a challenging case.
We investigate the nature of the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition driven by disorder for non-interacting ultracold atoms on one-dimensional lattices. We consider two different cases: Anderson-type disorder, with local energies randomly distributed, and pseudo-disorder due to a potential incommensurate with the lattice, which is usually called the Aubry-André model. A scaling analysis of numerical data for the superfluid fraction for different lattice sizes allows us to determine quantum critical exponents characterizing the disorder-driven superfluid-insulator transition. We also …
We prove the absence of a direct quantum phase transition between a superfluid and a Mott insulator in a bosonic system with generic, bounded disorder. We also prove compressibility of the system on the superfluid--insulator critical line and in its neighborhood. These conclusions follow from a general {\it theorem of inclusions} which states that for any transition in a disordered system one can always find rare regions of the competing phase on either side of the transition line. Quantum Monte Carlo simulations for the disordered Bose-Hubbard model show an even stronger result, important for…
We have performed quantum Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the superfluid behavior of one- and two-dimensional interfaces separating checkerboard solid domains. The system is described by the hard-core Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian with nearest-neighbor interaction. In accordance with Ref.1, we find that (i) the interface remains superfluid in a wide range of interaction strength before it undergoes a superfluid-insulator transition; (ii) in one dimension, the transition is of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type and is accompanied by the roughening transition, driven by proliferation of charge 1/2 q…
We have studied, in a fully non-perturbative calculation, a dilute system of spin 1/2 interacting fermions, characterized by an infinite scattering length at finite temperatures. Various thermodynamic properties and the condensate fraction were calculated and we have also determined the critical temperature for the superfluid-normal phase transition in this regime. The thermodynamic behavior appears as a rather surprising and unexpected melange of fermionic and bosonic features. The thermal response of a spin 1/2 fermion at the BCS-BEC crossover should be classified as that of a new type of su…
We study the Bose-Hubbard model using the finite size density matrix renormalization group method. We obtain for the first time a complete phase diagram for a system in the presence of a harmonic trap and compare it with that of the homogeneous system. To realize the transition from the superfluid to the Mott insulator phase we investigate different experimental signatures of these phases in quantities such as momentum distribution, visibility, condensate fraction and the total number of bosons at a particular density. The relationships between the various experimental signatures and the phase…
A system of coupled photonic cavities on a two-dimensional square lattice is systematically investigated using the stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo method. The ground state phase diagram contains insulating phases with integer polariton densities surrounded by a superfluid phase. The finite-size scaling of the superfluid density is used to determine the phase boundaries accurately. We find that the critical behavior is that of the generic, density-driven Mott-superfluid transition with dynamic exponent $z=2$, with no special multicritical points with $z=1$ at the tips of the ins…
We present an asymptotically exact renormalization-group theory of the superfluid--insulator transition in one-dimensional disordered systems, with emphasis on an accurate description of the interplay between the Giamarchi--Schulz (instanton--anti-instanton) and weak-link (scratched-XY) criticalities. Combining the theory with extensive quantum Monte Carlo simulations allows us to shed new light on the ground-state phase diagram of the one-dimensional disordered Bose-Hubbard model at unit filling.
We study the magnetization process in two-dimensional S=1/2 spin systems, to discuss the appearance of a plateau structure. The following three cases are considered: (1) the Heisenberg antiferromagnet and multiple-spin exchange model on the triangular lattice, (2) Shastry-Sutherland type lattice, [which is a possible model for SrCu2(BO3)2,] (3) 1/5-depleted lattice (for CaV4O9). We find in these systems that magnetization plateaus can appear owing to a transition from superfluid to a Mott insulator of magnetic excitations. The plateau states have CDW order of the excitations. The magnetization…
We study phase transition from the Mott insulator to superfluid in a periodic optical lattice. Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts buildup of winding number through random walk of BEC phases, with the step size scaling as a the third root of transition rate. We confirm this and demonstrate that this scaling accounts for the net winding number after the transition.
Density order is usually a consequence of the competition between long-range and short-range interactions. Here we report a density ordered superfluid emergent from a homogeneous Mott insulator due to the competition between frustrations and local interactions. This transition is found in a Bose-Hubbard model on a frustrated triangle lattice with an extra pairing term. Further, we find a quantum phase transition between two different density ordered superfluids, which is beyond the Landau-Ginzburg paradigm. Across this transition, a U(1) symmetry is emergent, while the symmetry in each density…
We consider a boundary between a Mott insulator and a superfluid region of a Bose-Hubbard model at unit filling. Initially both regions are decoupled and cooled to their respective ground states. We show that, after switching on a small tunneling rate between both regions, all particles of the Mott region migrate to the superfluid area. This migration takes place whenever the difference between the chemical potentials of both regions is less than the maximal energy of any eigenmode of the superfluid. We verify our results numerically with DMRG simulations and explain them analytically with a m…
We analyze stability of superfluid currents in a system of strongly interacting ultra-cold atoms in an optical lattice. We show that such a system undergoes a dynamic, irreversible phase transition at a critical phase gradient that depends on the interaction strength between atoms. At commensurate filling, the phase boundary continuously interpolates between the classical modulation instability of a weakly interacting condensate and the equilibrium quantum phase transition into a Mott insulator state at which the critical current vanishes. We argue that quantum fluctuations smear the transitio…
Algebraic contraction is proposed to realize mappings between models Hamiltonians. This transformation contracts the algebra of the degrees of freedom underlying the Hamiltonian. The rigorous mapping between the anisotropic $XXZ$ Heisenberg model, the Quantum Phase Model, and the Bose Hubbard Model is established as the contractions of the algebra $u(2)$ underlying the dynamics of the $XXZ$ Heisenberg model.
We develop a time-dependent mean field approach, within the time-dependent variational principle, to describe the Superfluid-Insulator quantum phase transition. We construct the zero temperature phase diagram both of the Bose-Hubbard model (BHM), and of a spin-S Heisenberg model (SHM) with the XXZ anisotropy. The phase diagram of the BHM indicates a phase transition from a Mott insulator to a compressibile superfluid phase, and shows the expected lobe-like structure. The SHM phase diagram displays a quantum phase transition between a paramagnetic and a canted phases showing as well a lobe-like…
We study a linear ramp of the nearest-neighbor tunneling rate in the Bose-Hubbard model driving the system from the Mott insulator state into the superfluid phase. We employ the truncated Wigner approximation to simulate linear quenches of a uniform system in 1,2, and 3 dimensions, and in a harmonic trap in 3 dimensions. In all these setups the excitation energy decays like one over third root of the quench time. The -1/3 scaling arises from an impulse-adiabatic approximation - a variant of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism - describing a crossover from non-adiabatic to adiabatic evolution when the s…
We investigate the superfluid transition of the Unitary Fermi Gas by means of the Functional Renormalization Group, aiming at quantitative precision. We extract $T_{\rm c}/μ=0.38(2)$ and $Δ/μ=1.04(15)$ for the critical temperature and the superfluid gap at zero temperature, respectively, within a systematic improvement of the truncation for the effective average action. The key new ingredient in comparison to previous approaches consists in the use of regulators which cut off both frequencies and momenta. We incorporate renormalization effects on both the bosonic and the fermionic propagator, …
The quantum phase transition from the Mott insulator state to the superfluid in the Bose-Hubbard model is investigated. We research one, two and three dimensional lattices in the truncated Wigner approximation. We compute both kinetic and potential energy and they turn out to have a power law behaviour as a function of the transition rate, with the power equal to 1/3. The same applies to the total energy in a system with a harmonic trap, which is usually present in the experimental set-up. These observations are in agreement with the experiment of [8], where such scalings were also observed an…
We study the entanglement entropy and entanglement spectrum of the paradigmatic Bose-Hubbard model, describing strongly correlated bosons on a lattice. The use of a controlled approximation - the slave-boson approach - allows us to study entanglement in all regimes of the model (and, most importantly, across its superfluid/Mott-insulator transition) at a minimal cost. We find that the area-law scaling of entanglement -- verified in all the phases -- exhibits a sharp singularity at the transition. The singularity is greatly enhanced when the transition is crossed at fixed, integer filling, due …
