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arXiv:0903.1591 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Thermal and quantum fluctuations in chains of ultracold polar molecules

G. E. Astrakharchik, Gabriele De Chiara, Giovanna Morigi, Jordi Boronat

Published Jul 16, 2009• 18 citations
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Abstract

Ultracold polar molecules, in highly anisotropic traps and interacting via a repulsive dipolar potential, may form one-dimensional chains at high densities. According to classical theory, at low temperatures there exists a critical value of the density at which a second order phase transition from a linear to a zigzag chain occurs. We study the effect of thermal and quantum fluctuations on these self-organized structures using classical and quantum Monte Carlo methods, by means of which we evaluate the pair correlation function and the static structure factor. Depending on the parameters, these functions exhibit properties typical of a crystalline or of a liquid system. We compare the thermal and the quantum results, identifying analogies and differences. Finally, we discuss experimental parameter regimes where the effects of quantum fluctuations on the linear - zigzag transition can be observed.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/42/15/154026

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Ultracold polar molecules, in highly anisotropic traps and interacting via a repulsive dipolar potential, may form one-dimensional chains at high densities. According to classical theory, at low temperatures there exists a critical value of the density at which a second order phase transition from a linear to a zigzag chain occurs. We study the effect of thermal and quantum fluctuations on these self-organized structures using classical and quantum Monte Carlo methods, by means of which we evaluate the pair correlation function and the static structure factor. Depending on the parameters, these functions exhibit properties typical of a crystalline or of a liquid system. We compare the thermal and the quantum results, identifying analogies and differences. Finally, we discuss experimental parameter regimes where the effects of quantum fluctuations on the linear - zigzag transition can be observed.
We study the ground-state phase diagram of ultracold dipolar gases in highly anisotropic traps. Starting from a one-dimensional geometry, by ramping down the transverse confinement along one direction, the gas reaches various planar distributions of dipoles. At large linear densities, when the dipolar gas exhibits a crystal-like phase, critical values of the transverse frequency exist below which the configuration exhibits transverse patterns. These critical values are found by means of a classical theory, and are in full agreement with classical Monte Carlo simulations. The study of the quantum system is performed numerically with Monte Carlo techniques and shows that the quantum fluctuations smoothen the transition and make it completely disappear in a gas phase. These predictions could be experimentally tested and would allow one to reveal the effect of zero-point motion on self-organized mesoscopic structures of matter waves, such as the transverse pattern of the zigzag chain.
A string of trapped ions at zero temperature exhibits a structural phase transition to a zigzag structure, tuned by reducing the transverse trap potential or the interparticle distance. The transition is driven by transverse, short wavelength vibrational modes. We argue that this is a quantum phase transition, which can be experimentally realized and probed. Indeed, by means of a mapping to the Ising model in a transverse field, we estimate the quantum critical point in terms of the system parameters, and find a finite, measurable deviation from the critical point predicted by the classical theory. A measurement procedure is suggested which can probe the effects of quantum fluctuations at criticality. These results can be extended to describe the transverse instability of ultracold polar molecules in a one-dimensional optical lattice.
A quasi-one-dimensional system of trapped, repulsively interacting atoms (e.g., an ion chain) exhibits a structural phase transition from a linear chain to a zigzag structure, tuned by reducing the transverse trap potential or increasing the particle density. Since it is a one-dimensional transition, it takes place at zero temperature and therefore quantum fluctuations dominate. In Fishman et al. [Phys. Rev. B 77, 064111 (2008)] it was shown that the system close to the linear-zigzag instability is described by a ${\ensuremath{\phi}}^{4}$ model. We propose a mapping of the ${\ensuremath{\phi}}^{4}$ field theory to the well-known Ising chain in a transverse field, which exhibits a quantum critical point. Based on this mapping, we estimate the quantum critical point in terms of the system parameters. This estimate gives the critical value of the transverse trap frequency for which the quantum phase transition occurs and which has a finite, measurable deviation from the critical point evaluated within the classical theory. A measurement is suggested for atomic systems which can probe the critical trap frequency at sufficiently low temperatures TTT. We focus in particular on a trapped-ion system and estimate the implied limitations on TTT and on the interparticle distance. We conclude that the experimental observation of the quantum critical behavior is, in principle, accessible.
We investigate the finite-temperature phase diagram of polar molecules confined in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry by a harmonic potential along the polarization axis. We employ quantum Monte Carlo simulations to explore the strongly correlated regime accessible with current experimental setups. By tuning temperature and confinement strength, we identify a rich set of phases, including normal fluid, superfluid, supersolid, cluster crystal, and bilayer crystal states. Our results reveal the emergence of crystallization upon increasing temperature, highlighting the nontrivial role of thermal fluctuations in dipolar systems. In particular, we show that a bilayer crystal with one molecule per lattice site can be stabilized by varying the confinement strength at fixed interaction. Moreover, we show evidence of layering of superfluid states with phase coherence between the two layers. These findings provide insight into the interplay between interactions, confinement, and temperature in low-dimensional dipolar systems, and suggest new directions for engineering quantum phases with ultracold polar molecules.
Dipolar particles in an elongated trap are expected to undergo a quantum phase transition from a linear to a zigzag structure with decreasing transverse confinement. We derive the low-energy effective theory of the transition showing that in the presence of quantum fluctuations the zigzag phase can be characterized by a long-ranged string order, while the local Ising correlations decay as a power law. This is also confirmed using density matrix renormalization group calculations on a microscopic model. The nonlocal order in the bulk gives rise to zero energy states localized at the interface between the ordered and disordered phases. Such an interface naturally arises when the particles are subject to a weak harmonic confinement along the tube axis. We compute the signature of the edge states in the single-particle tunneling spectra pointing to differences between a system with bosonic versus fermionic particles. Finally we assess the magnitude of the relevant quantum fluctuations in realistic systems of dipolar particles, including ultracold polar molecules as well as alkali atoms weakly dressed by a Rydberg excitation.
Abstract We present a comprehensive study shedding light on how thermal fluctuations affect correlations in a Bose gas with contact repulsive interactions in one spatial dimension. The pair correlation function, the static structure factor, and the one-body density matrix are calculated as a function of the interaction strength and temperature with the exact ab-initio Path Integral Monte Carlo method. We explore all possible gas regimes from weak to strong interactions and from low to high temperatures. We provide a detailed comparison with a number of theories, such as perturbative (Bogoliubov and decoherent classical), effective (Luttinger liquid) and exact (ground-state and thermal Bethe Ansatz) ones. Our Monte Carlo results exhibit an excellent agreement with the tractable limits and provide a fundamental benchmark for future observations which can be achieved in atomic gases, cavity quantum-electrodynamic and superconducting-circuit platforms.