arXiv:1002.1814 · Physical Review A
Detecting the tunneling rates for strongly interacting fermions on optical lattices
Alberto Anfossi, Luca Barbiero, Arianna Montorsi
Abstract
Strongly interacting fermionic atoms on optical lattices are studied through a Hubbard-like model Hamiltonian, in which tunneling rates of atoms and molecules between neighboring sites are assumed to be different. In the limit of large on-site repulsion $U$, the model is shown to reproduce the $t$-$J$ Hamiltonian, in which the $J$ coefficient of the Heisenberg term depends on the particle-assisted tunneling rate $g$: explicitly, $J=4{g}^{2}/U$. At half-filling, $g$ drives a crossover from a Brinkman-Rice paramagnetic insulator of fully localized atoms ($g=0$) to the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator of the standard Hubbard case ($g=t$). This is observed already in the number of doubly occupied sites under the intermediate coupling regime, thus providing a criterion for extracting from measurements the effective value of $g$.