Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1109.5703 · Physical Review A

Bose-Hubbard model in a strong effective magnetic field: Emergence of a chiral Mott insulator ground state

Arya Dhar, Maheswar Maji, Tapan Mishra, Ramesh V. Pai, Subroto Mukerjee, Arun Paramekanti

Published Apr 11, 2012• 130 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Motivated by experiments on Josephson junction arrays, and cold atoms in an optical lattice in a synthetic magnetic field, we study the ``fully frustrated'' Bose-Hubbard model with half a magnetic flux quantum per plaquette. We obtain the phase diagram of this model on a two-leg ladder at integer filling via the density matrix renormalization group approach, complemented by Monte Carlo simulations on an effective classical $XY$ model. The ground state at intermediate correlations is consistently shown to be a chiral Mott insulator (CMI) with a gap to all excitations and staggered loop currents which spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry. We characterize the CMI state as a vortex supersolid or an indirect exciton condensate, and discuss various experimental implications.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.041602

Related papers

Chiral Mott insulator with staggered loop currents in the fully frustrated Bose-Hubbard model

Arya Dhar, Tapan Mishra, Maheswar Maji +3 more

Motivated by experiments on Josephson junction arrays in a magnetic field and ultracold interacting atoms in an optical lattice in the presence of a ``synthetic'' orbital magnetic field, we study the ``fully frustrated'' Bose-Hubbard model and quantum $\mathrm{XY}$ model with half a flux quantum per lattice plaquette. Using Monte Carlo simulations and the density matrix renormalization group method, we show that these kinetically frustrated boson models admit three phases at integer filling: a weakly interacting chiral superfluid phase with staggered loop currents which spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry, a conventional Mott insulator at strong coupling, and a remarkable ``chiral Mott insulator'' (CMI) with staggered loop currents sandwiched between them at intermediate correlation. We discuss how the CMI state may be viewed as an exciton condensate or a vortex supersolid, study a Jastrow variational wave function which captures its correlations, present results for the boson momentum distribution across the phase diagram, and consider various experimental implications of our phase diagram. Finally, we consider generalizations to a staggered flux Bose-Hubbard model and a two-dimensional (2D) version of the CMI in weakly coupled ladders.

arXiv:1207.1725•Physical Review B•May 3, 2013•113 citations

Chiral Mott insulators in frustrated Bose-Hubbard models on ladders and two-dimensional lattices: A combined perturbative and density matrix renormalization group study

Christian Romen, Andreas Martin Läuchli

We study the fully gapped chiral Mott insulator (CMI) of frustrated Bose-Hubbard models on ladders and two-dimensional lattices by perturbative strong-coupling analysis and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). First we show the existence of a low-lying exciton state on several geometries carrying the correct quantum numbers responsible for the condensation of excitons and formation of the CMI in the intermediate interaction regime. Then we perform systematic DMRG simulations on several two-leg ladder systems with $\ensuremath{\pi}$ flux and carefully characterize the two quantum phase transitions. We discuss the possibility to extend the generally very small CMI window by including repulsive nearest-neighbor interactions or changing density and coupling ratios.

arXiv:1711.01909•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Aug 31, 2018•21 citations

Bose-Hubbard model in the presence of artificial magnetic fields: Ground state and thermal phase diagrams

Jaberi, Mohammadamin, Fatemeh Heydarinasab

We consider effects of artificial magnetic fields on the ground state of the two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model. Using an asymmetric Bose-Hubbard model, we demonstrate that the frustrating hopping energy localizes bosons and enlarges insulators and supersolid borders. We show these increments in the presence of artificial gauge fields up to a symmetric point of the field. Moreover, our calculations exhibit the real space modulations of the superfluid and supersolid phases. The bosonic current exhibits vortices in these phases, which their configurations depend on the commensuration between the magnetic field and the lattice. Although the magnetic field breaks the translational symmetry of the square lattice explicitly, this symmetry is restored in the Mott insulator phase. The filling factor exhibits a checkerboard pattern in the density-wave and supersolid phases, regardless of the magnetic field strength. We explore thermal fluctuations and demonstrate the robustness of insulators and SS phases up to temperatures comparable to the interaction energy, which support the feasibility of observing such phases in experiments.

arXiv:2507.11914•Jul 16, 2025•0 citations

Chiral and bond-ordered phases in a triangular-ladder superconducting-qubit quantum simulator

Matthew Molinelli, Joshua C. Wang, Jeronimo G. C. Martinez +4 more

Many-body systems with strong interactions often exhibit macroscopic behavior markedly absent in single-particle or noninteracting limits. Such emergent phenomena are well exemplified in lattice Hubbard models, where the interplay between interactions, geometric frustration, and magnetic flux gives rise to rich physics. Superconducting qubits naturally enable analog quantum simulation of Bose-Hubbard models, while offering tunable parameters, site-resolved control, and rapid experimental repetition rates. Here, we study a superconducting-qubit device that realizes the Bose-Hubbard model on a triangular-ladder lattice. By tuning the magnitude and sign of couplings, we engineer a synthetic magnetic flux to characterize the resulting half-filling ground state for various parameter regimes. We measure observables analogous to current-current correlators and bond kinetic energies, finding signatures consistent with chiral superfluids, Meissner superfluids, and bond-ordered insulators. Our results establish superconducting circuits as a platform for robustly probing quantum phases of matter in frustrated Bose-Hubbard systems, even in strongly correlated and gapless regimes.

quant-pharXiv:2603.16993•Mar 19, 2026•0 citations

Mott transition in a two-leg Bose-Hubbard ladder under an artificial magnetic field

Ahmet Keleş, Mehmet Özgür Oktel

We consider the Bose-Hubbard model on a two-leg ladder under an artificial magnetic field and investigate the superfluid--to--Mott insulator transition in this setting. Recently, this system has been experimentally realized [M. Atala et al., Nature Phys. 10, 588 (2014)], albeit in a parameter regime that is far from the Mott transition boundary. Depending on the strength of the magnetic field, the single-particle spectrum has either a single ground state or two degenerate ground states. The transition between these two phases is reflected in the many-particle properties. We first investigate these phases through the Bogoliubov approximation in the superfluid regime and calculate the transition boundary for weak interactions. For stronger interactions the system is expected to form a Mott insulator. We calculate the Mott transition boundary as a function of the magnetic field and interleg coupling with mean-field theory, strong-coupling expansion, and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). Finally, using the DMRG, we investigate the particle-hole excitation gaps of this system at different filling factors and find peaks at simple fractions, indicating the possibility of correlated phases.

arXiv:1411.0749•Physical Review A•Jan 28, 2015•57 citations

Two-leg-ladder Bose-Hubbard models with staggered fluxes

Rashi Sachdeva, Friederike Metz, Manpreet Singh +2 more

We investigate the ground-state properties of ultracold atoms trapped in a two-leg ladder potential in the presence of an artificial magnetic field in a staggered configuration. We focus on the strongly interacting regime and use the Landau theory of phase transitions and a mean field Gutzwiller variational method to identify the stable superfluid phases and their boundaries with the Mott-insulator regime as a function of magnetic flux. In addition, we calculate the local and chiral currents of these superfluid phases, which show a staggered vortex-antivortex configuration. The analytical results are confirmed by numerical simulations using a cluster mean-field-theory approach.

arXiv:1808.05348•Physical Review A•Dec 7, 2018•17 citations
Motivated by experiments on Josephson junction arrays, and cold atoms in an optical lattice in a synthetic magnetic field, we study the ``fully frustrated'' Bose-Hubbard model with half a magnetic flux quantum per plaquette. We obtain the phase diagram of this model on a two-leg ladder at integer filling via the density matrix renormalization group approach, complemented by Monte Carlo simulations on an effective classical XYXYXY model. The ground state at intermediate correlations is consistently shown to be a chiral Mott insulator (CMI) with a gap to all excitations and staggered loop currents which spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry. We characterize the CMI state as a vortex supersolid or an indirect exciton condensate, and discuss various experimental implications.
Motivated by experiments on Josephson junction arrays in a magnetic field and ultracold interacting atoms in an optical lattice in the presence of a ``synthetic'' orbital magnetic field, we study the ``fully frustrated'' Bose-Hubbard model and quantum XY\mathrm{XY}XY model with half a flux quantum per lattice plaquette. Using Monte Carlo simulations and the density matrix renormalization group method, we show that these kinetically frustrated boson models admit three phases at integer filling: a weakly interacting chiral superfluid phase with staggered loop currents which spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry, a conventional Mott insulator at strong coupling, and a remarkable ``chiral Mott insulator'' (CMI) with staggered loop currents sandwiched between them at intermediate correlation. We discuss how the CMI state may be viewed as an exciton condensate or a vortex supersolid, study a Jastrow variational wave function which captures its correlations, present results for the boson momentum distribution across the phase diagram, and consider various experimental implications of our phase diagram. Finally, we consider generalizations to a staggered flux Bose-Hubbard model and a two-dimensional (2D) version of the CMI in weakly coupled ladders.
We study the fully gapped chiral Mott insulator (CMI) of frustrated Bose-Hubbard models on ladders and two-dimensional lattices by perturbative strong-coupling analysis and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). First we show the existence of a low-lying exciton state on several geometries carrying the correct quantum numbers responsible for the condensation of excitons and formation of the CMI in the intermediate interaction regime. Then we perform systematic DMRG simulations on several two-leg ladder systems with $\ensuremath{\pi}$ flux and carefully characterize the two quantum phase transitions. We discuss the possibility to extend the generally very small CMI window by including repulsive nearest-neighbor interactions or changing density and coupling ratios.
We consider effects of artificial magnetic fields on the ground state of the two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model. Using an asymmetric Bose-Hubbard model, we demonstrate that the frustrating hopping energy localizes bosons and enlarges insulators and supersolid borders. We show these increments in the presence of artificial gauge fields up to a symmetric point of the field. Moreover, our calculations exhibit the real space modulations of the superfluid and supersolid phases. The bosonic current exhibits vortices in these phases, which their configurations depend on the commensuration between the magnetic field and the lattice. Although the magnetic field breaks the translational symmetry of the square lattice explicitly, this symmetry is restored in the Mott insulator phase. The filling factor exhibits a checkerboard pattern in the density-wave and supersolid phases, regardless of the magnetic field strength. We explore thermal fluctuations and demonstrate the robustness of insulators and SS phases up to temperatures comparable to the interaction energy, which support the feasibility of observing such phases in experiments.
Many-body systems with strong interactions often exhibit macroscopic behavior markedly absent in single-particle or noninteracting limits. Such emergent phenomena are well exemplified in lattice Hubbard models, where the interplay between interactions, geometric frustration, and magnetic flux gives rise to rich physics. Superconducting qubits naturally enable analog quantum simulation of Bose-Hubbard models, while offering tunable parameters, site-resolved control, and rapid experimental repetition rates. Here, we study a superconducting-qubit device that realizes the Bose-Hubbard model on a triangular-ladder lattice. By tuning the magnitude and sign of couplings, we engineer a synthetic magnetic flux to characterize the resulting half-filling ground state for various parameter regimes. We measure observables analogous to current-current correlators and bond kinetic energies, finding signatures consistent with chiral superfluids, Meissner superfluids, and bond-ordered insulators. Our results establish superconducting circuits as a platform for robustly probing quantum phases of matter in frustrated Bose-Hubbard systems, even in strongly correlated and gapless regimes.
We consider the Bose-Hubbard model on a two-leg ladder under an artificial magnetic field and investigate the superfluid--to--Mott insulator transition in this setting. Recently, this system has been experimentally realized [M. Atala et al., Nature Phys. 10, 588 (2014)], albeit in a parameter regime that is far from the Mott transition boundary. Depending on the strength of the magnetic field, the single-particle spectrum has either a single ground state or two degenerate ground states. The transition between these two phases is reflected in the many-particle properties. We first investigate these phases through the Bogoliubov approximation in the superfluid regime and calculate the transition boundary for weak interactions. For stronger interactions the system is expected to form a Mott insulator. We calculate the Mott transition boundary as a function of the magnetic field and interleg coupling with mean-field theory, strong-coupling expansion, and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). Finally, using the DMRG, we investigate the particle-hole excitation gaps of this system at different filling factors and find peaks at simple fractions, indicating the possibility of correlated phases.
We investigate the ground-state properties of ultracold atoms trapped in a two-leg ladder potential in the presence of an artificial magnetic field in a staggered configuration. We focus on the strongly interacting regime and use the Landau theory of phase transitions and a mean field Gutzwiller variational method to identify the stable superfluid phases and their boundaries with the Mott-insulator regime as a function of magnetic flux. In addition, we calculate the local and chiral currents of these superfluid phases, which show a staggered vortex-antivortex configuration. The analytical results are confirmed by numerical simulations using a cluster mean-field-theory approach.