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arXiv:1007.5083 · Physical Review A

Heavy fermions in an optical lattice

Michael Foss‐Feig, Michael Hermele, Victor Gurarie, Ana María Rey

Published Nov 22, 2010• 48 citations

Abstract

We employ a mean-field theory to study ground-state properties and transport of a two-dimensional gas of ultracold alkaline-earth-metal atoms governed by the Kondo lattice Hamiltonian plus a parabolic confining potential. In a homogenous system, this mean-field theory is believed to give a qualitatively correct description of heavy-fermion metals and Kondo insulators: It reproduces the Kondo-like scaling of the quasiparticle mass in the former and the same scaling of the excitation gap in the latter. In order to understand ground-state properties in a trap, we extend this mean-field theory via local-density approximation. We find that the Kondo insulator gap manifests as a shell structure in the trapped density profile. In addition, a strong signature of the large Fermi surface expected for heavy-fermion systems survives the confinement and could be probed in time-of-flight experiments. From a full self-consistent diagonalization of the mean-field theory, we are able to study dynamics in the trap. We find that the mass enhancement of quasiparticle excitations in the heavy-Fermi liquid phase manifests as slowing of the dipole oscillations that result from a sudden displacement of the trap center.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.82.053624

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We employ a mean-field theory to study ground-state properties and transport of a two-dimensional gas of ultracold alkaline-earth-metal atoms governed by the Kondo lattice Hamiltonian plus a parabolic confining potential. In a homogenous system, this mean-field theory is believed to give a qualitatively correct description of heavy-fermion metals and Kondo insulators: It reproduces the Kondo-like scaling of the quasiparticle mass in the former and the same scaling of the excitation gap in the latter. In order to understand ground-state properties in a trap, we extend this mean-field theory via local-density approximation. We find that the Kondo insulator gap manifests as a shell structure in the trapped density profile. In addition, a strong signature of the large Fermi surface expected for heavy-fermion systems survives the confinement and could be probed in time-of-flight experiments. From a full self-consistent diagonalization of the mean-field theory, we are able to study dynamics in the trap. We find that the mass enhancement of quasiparticle excitations in the heavy-Fermi liquid phase manifests as slowing of the dipole oscillations that result from a sudden displacement of the trap center.

We calculate the entanglement of the ground state of alkaline-earth-metal fermionic atoms confined in one-dimensional optical lattices. This system can be described using the Kondo lattice model plus a harmonic confining potential, and we adopt the density-matrix renormalization group to study its ground state. We find that the local von Neumann entropy is constant in the insulating domains, and a one-to-one correspondence with the variance of the local density is observed. We show that the average entropy and its derivative are useful tools for identifying quantum transitions in impurity systems.

The fermionic Hubbard model plays a fundamental role in the description of strongly correlated materials. We have realized this Hamiltonian in a repulsively interacting spin mixture of ultracold (40)K atoms in a three-dimensional (3D) optical lattice. Using in situ imaging and independent control of external confinement and lattice depth, we were able to directly measure the compressibility of the quantum gas in the trap. Together with a comparison to ab initio dynamical mean field theory calculations, we show how the system evolves for increasing confinement from a compressible dilute metal over a strongly interacting Fermi liquid into a band-insulating state. For strong interactions, we find evidence for an emergent incompressible Mott insulating phase. This demonstrates the potential to model interacting condensed-matter systems using ultracold fermionic atoms.

Ground-state properties of fermionic mixtures confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice are studied numerically within the spinless Falicov-Kimball model with a harmonic trap. A number of remarkable results are found. i) At low particle filling the system exhibits phase separation with heavy atoms in the center of the trap and light atoms in the surrounding regions. ii) Insulating phases always coexist with metallic phases. iii) Atomic-density waves are observed in the insulating regions for all particle fillings near the half-filled lattice case. iv) The variance of the local density exhibits universal behavior (independent of the particle filling, the Coulomb interaction and the strength of a confining potential) over the whole region of the local density values.

We study theoretically the Mott metal-insulator transition for a system of fermionic atoms confined in a three-dimensional optical lattice and a harmonic trap. We describe an inhomogeneous system of several thousand sites using an adaptation of dynamical mean-field theory solved efficiently with the numerical renormalization group method. Above a critical value of the on-site interaction, a Mott-insulating phase appears in the system. We investigate signatures of the Mott phase in the density profile and in time-of-flight experiments.

The periodic Anderson model (PAM), where local electron orbitals interplay with itinerant electronic carriers, plays an essential role in our understanding of heavy fermion materials. Motivated by recent proposals for simulating the Kondo lattice model (KLM) in terms of alkaline-earth metal atoms, we take another step toward the simulation of PAM, which includes the crucial charge/valence fluctuation of local f-electrons beyond purely low-energy spin fluctuation in the KLM. To realize PAM, a transition induced by a suitable laser between the electronic excited and ground state of alkaline-earth metal atoms (1 S 0⇌3 P 0) is introduced. This leads to effective hybridization between local electrons and conduction electrons in PAM. Generally, the SU(N) version of PAM can be realized by our proposal, which gives a unique opportunity to detect large-N physics without complexity in realistic materials. In the present work, high-temperature physical features of standard [SU(2)] PAM with harmonic trapping potential are analyzed by quantum Monte Carlo and dynamic mean-field theory, where the Mott/orbital-selective Mott state was found to coexist with metallic states. Indications for near-future experiments are provided. We expect our theoretical proposal and (hopefully) forthcoming experiments will deepen our understanding of heavy fermion systems. At the same time, we hope these will trigger further studies on related Mott physics, quantum criticality, and non-trivial topology in both the inhomogeneous and nonequilibrium realms.