Mott-Insulator Transition for Ultracold Fermions in Two-Dimensional Optical Lattices

Adiabatic melting of two-component Mott-insulator states

We analyze the outcome of a Mott insulator to superfluid transition for a two-component Bose gas with two atoms per site in an optical lattice in the limit of slow ramping down the lattice potential. This manipulation of the initial Mott insulating state transforms local correlations between hyperfine states of atom pairs into multiparticle correlations extending over the whole system. We show how to create macroscopic twin Fock states in this way an that, in general, the obtained superfluid states are highly depleted even for initial ground Mott insulator states.

Superfluid to Mott insulator transition in one, two, and three dimensions

We have created one-, two-, and three-dimensional quantum gases and study the superfluid to Mott insulator transition. Measurements of the transition using Bragg spectroscopy show that the excitation spectra of the low-dimensional superfluids differ significantly from the three-dimensional case.

Mott Insulators of Ultracold Fermionic Alkaline Earth Atoms: Underconstrained Magnetism and Chiral Spin Liquid

We study Mott insulators of fermionic alkaline earth atoms, described by Heisenberg spin models with enhanced SU(N) symmetry. In dramatic contrast to SU(2) magnetism, more than two spins are required to form a singlet. On the square lattice, the classical ground state is highly degenerate and magnetic order is thus unlikely. In a large-N limit, we find a chiral spin liquid ground state with topological order and Abelian fractional statistics. We discuss its experimental detection. Chiral spin liquids with non-Abelian anyons may also be realizable with alkaline earth atoms.

Mott Insulators Without Symmetry Breaking

We present theoretical models, in one and two space dimensions, that exhibit Mott insulating ground states at fractional occupations without any symmetry breaking. The Hamiltonians of these models are non-local in configuration space, but local in phase space.

Suppression of rectification at metal-Mott-insulator interfaces

Charge transport through metal-Mott-insulator interfaces is studied and compared with that through metal-band-insulator interfaces. For band insulators, rectification has been known to occur owing to a Schottky barrier, which is produced by the work-function difference. For Mott insulators, however, qualitatively different current-voltage characteristics are obtained. Theoretically, we use the one-dimensional Hubbard model for a Mott insulator and attach to it the tight-binding model for metallic electrodes. A Schottky barrier is introduced by a solution to the Poisson equation with a simplifi…

莫特绝缘体的普适描述：超越对称性破缺的量子相表征

A universal description of Mott insulators: Characterizing quantum phases beyond broken symmetries

本文通过N体重正化群框架，以动力学方式表征莫特绝缘体，揭示“莫特性”源于有效动量排斥的尺寸标度变化，提供普适描述并推广至拓扑及玻色子莫特系统。