We extend the idea of quantum phase transitions of light in an atom-photon system with a Dicke-Bose-Hubbard model for an arbitrary number of two-level atoms. The formulations of eigenenergies, effective Rabi frequencies, and critical chemical potentials for two atoms are derived. With a self-consistent method, we obtain a complete phase diagram for two two-level atoms on resonance, which indicates the transition from Mott insulator to superfluidity and with a mean excitations diagram for confirmation. We illustrate the generality of the method by constructing the dressed-state basis for an arbitrary number of two-level atoms. In addition, we show that the Mott insulator lobes in the phase diagrams will smash out with the increase of atom numbers. The results of this work provide a step for studying the effects with combinations of Dicke-like and Hubbard-like models to simulate strongly correlated electron systems using photons.
We extend the idea of quantum phase transitions of light in an atom-photon system with a Dicke-Bose-Hubbard model for an arbitrary number of two-level atoms. The formulations of eigenenergies, effective Rabi frequencies, and critical chemical potentials for two atoms are derived. With a self-consistent method, we obtain a complete phase diagram for two two-level atoms on resonance, which indicates the transition from Mott insulator to superfluidity and with a mean excitations diagram for confirmation. We illustrate the generality of the method by constructing the dressed-state basis for an arbitrary number of two-level atoms. In addition, we show that the Mott insulator lobes in the phase diagrams will smash out with the increase of atom numbers. The results of this work provide a step for studying the effects with combinations of Dicke-like and Hubbard-like models to simulate strongly correlated electron systems using photons.
We study the ground-state phase diagrams of two-photon Dicke, one-dimensional Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard (JCH), and Rabi-Hubbard (RH) models using mean-field, perturbation, quantum Monte Carlo (QMC), and density-matrix renormalization-group methods. We first compare mean-field predictions for the phase diagram of the Dicke model with exact QMC results and find excellent agreement. The phase diagram of the JCH model is then shown to exhibit a single Mott insulator lobe with two excitons per site, a superfluid (SF, superradiant) phase and a large region of instability where the Hamiltonian becomes unbounded. Unlike the one-photon model, there are no higher Mott lobes. Also, unlike the one-photon case, the SF phases above and below the Mott lobe are surprisingly different: Below the Mott lobe, the SF consists of photon pairs as opposed to above the Mott lobe, where it is SF of simple photons. The mean-field phase diagram of the RH model predicts a transition from a normal to a superradiant phase but none is found with QMC.
The impact that the environment has on the quantum phase transition of light in the Dicke-Bose-Hubbard model is investigated. Based on the quasibosonic approach, mean-field theory, and perturbation theory, the formulation of the Hamiltonian, the eigenenergies, and the superfluid order parameter are obtained analytically. Compared with the ideal cases, the order parameter of the system evolves with time as the photons naturally decay in their environment. When the system starts with the superfluid state, the dissipation makes the photons more likely to localize, and a greater hopping energy of photons is required to restore the long-range phase coherence of the localized state of the system. Furthermore, the Mott lobes depend crucially on the numbers of atoms and photons (which disappear) of each site, and the system tends to be classical with the number of atoms increasing; however, the atomic number is far lower than that expected under ideal circumstances. As there is an inevitable interaction between the coupled-cavity array and its surrounding environment in the actual experiments, the system is intrinsically dissipative. The results obtained here provide a more realistic image for characterizing the dissipative nature of quantum phase transitions in lossy platforms, which will offer valuable insight into quantum simulation of a dissipative system and which are helpful in guiding experimentalists in open quantum systems.
We use the mean field approximation method to study the quantum phase transitions of the Jaynes-Cummings lattice model and the Rabi lattice model. The effective Hamiltonians are obtained for the JC and Rabi model including the Kerr nonlinear term. Numerically we diagonalized the Hamiltonian matrix and calculated the superfluidity order parameter and the two-photon correlation function by solving the iteration equations. We have explored the Mott insulating-superfluid quantum phase transition, the bunching-antibunching behavior of light, and the effect of Kerr nonlinear term on the quantum phase transition and photon statistical characteristics. Our results show that in the JC lattice model, by increasing J, a quantum phase transition takes place and the system is driven to a superfluid phase. The phase boundaries of the Mott lobes are N-dependent. However the photon will always be in a bunching statistical behavior irrelevant of the coupling strength between the two-level atom and the phonton and the nonlinear Kerr effect. In the Rabi lattice model, the anti-rotating wave term breaks Mott-lobe structure of the phase diagram and the increase of the two-level atom and photon interaction strength g and the photon transition strength J between the lattices drive the system from the Mott insulating phase to the superfluid phase. The photon statistical behavior changes from the bunching to the antibunching one when considering the anti-rotating wave term, which is important in the strongly coupled systems. Most interestingly, the increase of the Kerr nonlinear coefficient will inhibit the Mott insulating phase-superfluid phase transition, but favor the superfluid phase and the transition from the bunching to anti-bunching statistics.
Ultracold atomic gases may be the ultimate quantum simulator.These isolated systems have the lowest temperatures in the observable universe, and their properties and interactions can be precisely and accurately tuned across a full spectrum of behaviors, from few-body physics to highly-correlated many-body effects.The ability to impose potentials on and tune interactions within ultracold gases to mimic complex systems mean they could become a theorist's playground.One of their great strengths, however, is also one of the largest obstacles to this dream: isolation.This thesis touches on both of these themes.First, methods to characterize phases and quantum critical points, and to construct finite temperature phase diagrams using experimentally accessible observables in the Bose Hubbard model are discussed.Then, the transition from a weakly to a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture in the continuum is analyzed using zero temperature numerical techniques.Real materials can be emulated by ultracold atomic gases loaded into optical lattice potentials.We discuss the characteristics of a single boson species trapped in an optical lattice (described by the Bose Hubbard model) and the hallmarks of the quantum critical region that separates the superfluid and the Mott insulator ground states.We propose a method to map the quantum critical region using the single, experimentally accessible, local quantity R, the ratio of compressibility to local number fluctuations.The procedure to map a phase diagram with R is easily generalized to inhomogeneous systems and generic many-body Hamiltonians.We illustrate it here using quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the 2D Bose Hubbard model.Secondly, we investigate the transition from a degenerate Fermi gas weakly coupled List of Tables Table Page 2.1 Techniques to Probe Atoms in Optical Lattices . . . . . .
We extend the idea of quantum phase transitions of light in the photonic Bose-Hubbard model with interactions to two atomic species by a self-consistent mean field theory. The excitation of two-level atoms interacting with a coherent photon field is analyzed with a finite temperature dependence of the order parameters. Four ground states of the system are found, including an isolated Mott-insulator phase and three different superfluid phases. Like two weakly coupled superconductors, our proposed dual-species lattice system shows a photonic analogue of Josephson effect. i.e., the crossovers between two superfluid states. The dynamics of the proposed two species model provides a promising quantum simulator for possible quantum information processes.
In this paper we construct a type of cavity array, in each cavity of which multiple two-level atoms interact with two independent photon modes. This system can be totally governed by a two-mode Dicke-lattice model, which includes all of the counter-rotating terms and therefore works well in the ultrastrong coupling regime achieved in recent experiments. Attributed to its special atom-photon coupling scheme, this model supports a global conserved excitation and a continuous U(1) symmetry, rather than the discrete Z2 symmetry in the standard single-mode Dicke-lattice model. This distinct change of symmetry via adding an extra photon mode strongly impacts the nature of photon localization and delocalization behavior. Specifically, the atom-photon interaction features stable Mott-lobe structures of photons and a second-order superfluid--Mott-insulator quantum phase transition, which share similarities with the Jaynes-Cummings-lattice and Bose-Hubbard models. More interestingly, the Mott-lobe structures predicted here depend crucially on the atom number of each site. We also show that our model can be mapped into a continuous XX spin model. Finally, we propose a scheme to implement the introduced cavity array in circuit quantum electrodynamics. This work broadens our understanding of strongly correlated photons.