We investigate the zero-temperature phases of bosonic and fermionic gases confined to one dimension and interacting via a class of finite-range soft-shoulder potentials (i.e., soft-core potentials with an additional hard-core onsite interaction). Using a combination of analytical and numerical methods, we demonstrate the stabilization of critical quantum liquids with qualitatively new features with respect to the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid paradigm. These features result from frustration and cluster formation in the corresponding classical ground state. Characteristic signatures of these liquids are accessible in state-of-the-art experimental setups with Rydberg-dressed ground-state atoms trapped in optical lattices.
We investigate the zero-temperature phases of bosonic and fermionic gases confined to one dimension and interacting via a class of finite-range soft-shoulder potentials (i.e., soft-core potentials with an additional hard-core onsite interaction). Using a combination of analytical and numerical methods, we demonstrate the stabilization of critical quantum liquids with qualitatively new features with respect to the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid paradigm. These features result from frustration and cluster formation in the corresponding classical ground state. Characteristic signatures of these liquids are accessible in state-of-the-art experimental setups with Rydberg-dressed ground-state atoms trapped in optical lattices.
Rydberg and Rydberg-dressed atomic gases have recently emerged as a promising quantum simulator for a variety of models in condensed matter physics. Here we investigate one-dimensional bosons with soft-core Rydberg-dressed interactions using exact path-integral quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The finite-range and the negative Fourier component of the interaction potential generate a roton mode at finite momentum, while particle-hole backscattering processes enhance the susceptibility of one-dimensional systems at twice the Fermi momentum. The competition between the corresponding length scales yields a rich phase diagram, featuring a conventional Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) regime, a beyond-TLL regime, and commensurate cluster phases. In the TLL regime, the system transitions from Lieb-Liniger-like bnehavior with Luttinger parameter K>1 to hard-rod-like behavior with K<1, with a quasi-supersolid phase emerging for K<1/2. For strong interactions and high densities, deviations from TLL theory appear as precursors for the onset of cluster phases, where particles aggregate into stable clusters of several particles. The properties of each phase is discussed in detail.
We investigate the quantum phases of hard-core bosonic atoms in an extended Hubbard model where particles interact via soft-shoulder potentials in one dimension. Using a combination of field-theoretical methods and strong-coupling perturbation theory, we demonstrate that the low-energy phase can be a conformal cluster Luttinger liquid (CLL) phase with central charge c=1, where the microscopic degrees of freedom correspond to mesoscopic ensembles of particles. Using numerical density-matrix renormalization-group methods, we demonstrate that the CLL phase [first predicted in M. Mattioli et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 165302 (2013)] is separated from a conventional Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid by an exotic critical point with central charge c=23. The latter is expression of an emergent conformal supersymmetry, which is not present in the original Hamiltonian. We discuss the observability of the CLL phase in realistic experimental settings with weakly dressed Rydberg atoms confined to optical lattices. Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the typical features of CLLs are stable up to comparatively high temperatures. Using exact diagonalizations and quantum trajectory methods, we provide a protocol for adiabatic state preparation as well as quantitative estimates on the effects of particle losses.
We consider a zero-temperature one-dimensional system of bosons interacting via the soft-shoulder potential in the continuum, typical of dressed Rydberg gases. We employ quantum Monte Carlo simulations, which allow for the exact calculation of imaginary-time correlations, and a stochastic analytic continuation method, to extract the dynamical structure factor. At finite densities, in the weakly interacting homogeneous regime, a rotonic spectrum marks the tendency to clustering. With strong interactions, we indeed observe cluster liquid phases emerging, characterized by the spectrum of a composite harmonic chain. Luttinger theory has to be adapted by changing the reference lattice density field. In both the liquid and cluster liquid phases, we find convincing evidence of a secondary mode, which becomes gapless only at the transition. In that region, we also measure the central charge and observe its increase towards c=3/2, as recently evaluated in a related extended Bose-Hubbard model, and we note a fast reduction of the Luttinger parameter. For two-particle clusters, we then interpret such observations in terms of the compresence of a Luttinger liquid and a critical transverse Ising model, related to the instability of the reference lattice density field towards coalescence of sites, typical of potentials which are flat at short distances. Even in the absence of a true lattice, we are able to evaluate the spatial correlation function of a suitable pseudospin operator, which manifests ferromagnetic order in the cluster liquid phase, exponential decay in the liquid phase, and algebraic order at criticality.
We investigate the T=0 phase diagram of a variant of the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model where particles interact via a finite-range soft-shoulder potential. Using Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) simulations, we evidence the appearance of Cluster Luttinger Liquid (CLL) phases, similarly to what first predicted in a hard-core bosonic chain [M. Mattioli, M. Dalmonte, W. Lechner, and G. Pupillo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 165302]. As the interaction strength parameters change, we find different types of clusters, that encode the order of the ground state in a semi-classical approximation and give rise to different types of CLLs. Interestingly, we find that the conventional Tomonaga Luttinger Liquid (TLL) is separated by a critical line with a central charge c=5/2, along which the two (spin and charge) bosonic degrees of freedom (corresponding to c=1 each) combine in a supersymmetric way with an emergent fermionic excitation (c=1/2). We also demonstrate that there are no significant spin correlations.
We investigate the quantum phases of monodispersed bosonic gases confined to a triangular lattice and interacting via a class of soft-shoulder potentials. The latter correspond to soft-core potentials with an additional hard-core onsite interaction. Using exact quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the low temperature phases for weak and strong interactions are an homogeneous superfluid and a glass, respectively. The latter is an insulating phase characterized by inhomogeneity in the density distribution and structural disorder. Remarkably, we find that for intermediate interaction strengths a {\it superglass} occurs in an extended region of the phase diagram, where glassy behavior coexists with a sizable finite superfluid fraction. This superglass is obtained in the absence of geometrical frustration or external disorder and is a result of the competition of quantum fluctuations and cluster formation in the corresponding classical ground state. Given the simplicity and generality of the model, these phases should be directly relevant for state-of-the-art experiments with Rydberg-dressed atoms in optical lattices.
The emergent phases of strongly correlated spin-21 Fermi gases of Rydberg-dressed atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice are theoretically investigated. At weak coupling a bosonization description is used to demonstrate the ability to drive alternating quantum phase transitions between distinct Luttinger liquids. At strong coupling the ground state develops nontrivial phase separation exhibiting Luttinger liquid ``puddles'' separated by magnetic domain walls due to the interplay of the incommensurate filling and the Rydberg core length scale. These phases can be detected in ultracold gases of Rydberg atoms made from 6Li.