We study the phase diagram of repulsively interacting spin-1 bosons in optical lattices at unit filling, showing that an externally induced quadratic Zeeman effect may lead to a rich physics characterized by various phases and phase transitions. We find that the main properties of the system may be described by an effective field model, which provides the precise location of the phase boundaries for any dimension, in excellent agreement with our numerical calculations for one-dimensional (1D) systems. Thus, our work provides a quantitative guide for the experimental analysis of various types of field-induced quantum phase transitions in spin-1 lattice bosons. These transitions, which are precluded in spin-1/2 systems, may be realized by using an externally modified quadratic Zeeman coupling, similar to recent experiments with spinor condensates in the continuum.
We study the phase diagram of repulsively interacting spin-1 bosons in optical lattices at unit filling, showing that an externally induced quadratic Zeeman effect may lead to a rich physics characterized by various phases and phase transitions. We find that the main properties of the system may be described by an effective field model, which provides the precise location of the phase boundaries for any dimension, in excellent agreement with our numerical calculations for one-dimensional (1D) systems. Thus, our work provides a quantitative guide for the experimental analysis of various types of field-induced quantum phase transitions in spin-1 lattice bosons. These transitions, which are precluded in spin-1/2 systems, may be realized by using an externally modified quadratic Zeeman coupling, similar to recent experiments with spinor condensates in the continuum.
Abstract Motivated by recent experimental processes, we systemically investigate strongly correlated spin-1 ultracold bosons trapped in a three-dimensional optical lattice in the presence of an external magnetic field. Based on a recently developed bosonic dynamical mean-field theory (BDMFT), we map out complete phase diagrams of the system for both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions, where various phases are found as a result of the interplay of spin-dependent interaction and quadratic Zeeman energy. For antiferromagnetic interactions, the system demonstrates competing magnetic orders, including nematic, spin-singlet and ferromagnetic insulating phase, depending on longitudinal magnetization, whereas, for ferromagnetic case, a ferromagnetic-to-nematic-insulating phase transition is observed for small quadratic Zeeman energy, and the insulating phase demonstrates the nematic order for large Zeeman energy. Interestingly, at low magnetic field and finite temperature, we find an abnormal multi-step condensation of the strongly correlated superfluid, i.e. the critical condensing temperature of the m F = −1 component with antiferromagnetic interactions demonstrates an increase with longitudinal magnetization, while, for ferromagnetic case, the Zeeman component m F = 0 demonstrates a local minimum for the critical condensing temperature, in contrast to weakly interacting cases.
We study the influence of the quadratic Zeeman effect on the Mott-insulator phases of hard-core 1D spin-3/2 fermions. We show that, contrary to spinor bosons, the quadratic Zeeman coupling preserves an SU(2)⊗SU(2) symmetry, leading for large-enough quadratic Zeeman coupling to an isotropic pseudo-spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Decreasing the quadratic Zeeman coupling, this phase undergoes, depending on the scattering lengths, either a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition into a gapped dimerized phase or a commensurate-incommensurate transition into a gapless spin liquid. This rich phase diagram can be observed experimentally in four-component fermions in optical lattices under similar entropy constraints to those needed for Néel order in spin-1/2 gases.
Since the experimental realization of Bose-Einstein condensation in 1995, the field of ultracold atoms has expanded rapidly, and has become an important arena for exploring diverse quantum many-body physics, as highlighted by the experimental observation of quantum phase transitions in the system of bosons in a periodic potential, which is described by the Bose-Hubbard model.Recently, ultracold atoms with spin degrees of freedom are actively studied because the coupling between the internal spin degrees of freedom and the spatial degrees of freedom can give rise to novel and interesting physics.A minimal model for studying such physics is the spin-1 Bose-Hubbard model, which describes spin-1 bosons in a periodic potential.The model has a spin-dependent interaction, which can be ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic, and it is known that although the ferromagnetic model resembles the spinless counterpart, the antiferromagnetic model exhibits totally different features, which make the model much more intensively studied compared with the ferromagnetic one.However, the presence of an external magnetic field can change the situation, because the positive quadratic Zeeman energy competes with the ferromagnetic interaction, which can give rise to rich phases.In this thesis, we explore the ground-state and nonzero-temperature phase diagrams of the spin-1 Bose-Hubbard model under an external magnetic field.To analyze the model, we use an approximation method called the decoupling approximation, or equivalently, the Gutzwiller variational ansatz.It is shown that, in addition to the Mott insulator phase, the model possesses two superfluid phases.Moreover, for large values of a spin-dependent interaction, the phase transitions between the two superfluid phases can be discontinuous.Such discontinuous phase transitions are shown to survive at nonzero but sufficiently low temperature.The discontinuous phase transitions are in clear contrast to the mean-field theory of weakly interacting spin-1 bosons without a lattice, which predicts that the corresponding phase transition is continuous, signifying the importance of the effect of strong interactions on the interplay between the spatial and spinor degrees of freedom. 4.1.2The grand Hamiltonian . . . . . . . . .
We study the ground-state phase diagram of spinless and spin-1 bosons in optical superlattices using a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian that includes spin-dependent interactions. We decouple the unit cells of the superlattice via a mean-field approach and take into account the dynamics within the unit cell exactly. The system supports Mott-insulating as well as superfluid phases. The transitions between these phases are second order for spinless bosons and second or first order for spin-1 bosons. Antiferromagnetic interactions energetically penalize high-spin configurations and elongate all Mott lobes, especially the ones corresponding to an even atom number on each lattice site. We find that the quadratic Zeeman effect lifts the degeneracy between different polar superfluid phases leading to additional metastable phases and first-order phase transitions. Finally, we show that an energy offset between the two sites of the unit cell induces a staircase of single-atom tunneling resonances, which surprisingly survives well into the superfluid regime.
In this thesis we study various aspects of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in optical superlattices using a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian that takes spin effects into account. We decouple the unit cells of the superlattice via a mean-field approach and take into account the dynamics within the unit cell exactly. In this way we derive the ground-state phase diagram of spinor bosons in superlattices. The system supports Mott-insulating as well as superfluid phases. The transitions between these phases are second-order for spinless bosons and second- or first-order for spin-1 bosons. Antiferromagnetic interactions energetically penalize high-spin configurations and elongate all Mott lobes, especially the ones corresponding to an even atom number on each lattice site. We find that the quadratic Zeeman effect lifts the degeneracy between different polar superfluid phases leading to additional metastable phases and first-order phase transitions. A change of magnetic fields can drive quantum phase transitions in the same way as a change in the tunneling amplitude does. Furthermore we study the physics of spin-1 atoms in superlattices deep in the Mott insulating phase when the superlattice decomposes into isolated double-well potentials. Assuming that a small number of spin-1 bosons is loaded in an optical double-well potential, we study single-particle tunneling that occurs when one lattice site is ramped up relative to a neighboring site. Spin-dependent effects modify the tunneling events in a qualitative and quantitative way. Depending on the asymmetry of the double well different types of magnetic order occur, making the system of spin-1 bosons in an optical superlattice a model for mesoscopic magnetism with an unprecedented control of the parameters. Homogeneous and inhomogeneous magnetic fields are applied and the effects of the linear and the quadratic Zeeman shifts are examined. We generalize the concept of bosonic staircases to connected double-well potentials. We show that an energy offset between the two sites of the unit cell in an extended superlattice induces a staircase of single-atom resonances in \nthe same way as in isolated double well. We also examine single-atom resonances in the superfluid regime and find clear fingerprints of them in the superfluid density. We also investigate the bipartite entanglement between the sites and construct states of maximal entanglement. The entanglement in our system is due to both orbital and spin degrees of freedom. We calculate the contribution of orbital and \nspin entanglement and show that the sum of these two terms gives a lower bound for the total entanglement.
We study the quadratic Zeeman effect (QZE) in a system of antiferromagnetic spin-1 bosons on a square lattice and derive the ground-state phase diagrams by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations and mean-field treatment. The QZE imbalances the populations of the magnetic sublevels $\ensuremath{\sigma}=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ and $\ensuremath{\sigma}=0$, and therefore affects the magnetic and mobility properties of the phases. Both methods show that the tip of the even Mott lobes, stabilized by singlet state, is destroyed when turning on the QZE, thus leaving the space to the superfluid phase. Contrariwise, the tips of odd Mott lobes remain unaffected. Therefore, the Mott-superfluid transition with even filling strongly depends on the strength of the QZE, and we show that the QZE can act as a control parameter for this transition at fixed hopping. Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we elucidate the nature of the phase transitions and examine in detail the nematic order: the first-order Mott-superfluid transition with even filling observed in the absence of QZE becomes second order for weak QZE, in contradistinction to our mean-field results which predict a first-order transition in a larger range of QZE. Furthermore, a spin nematic order with director along the z axis is found in the odd Mott lobes and in the superfluid phase for energetically favored $\ensuremath{\sigma}=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ states. In the superfluid phase with even filling, the xy components of the nematic director remain finite only for moderate QZE.