We extend the self-energy functional theory to the case of interacting lattice bosons in the presence of symmetry breaking and quenched disorder. The self-energy functional we derive depends only on the self-energies of the disorder-averaged propagators, allowing for the construction of general non-perturbative approximations. Using a simple single-site reference system with only three variational parameters, we are able to reproduce numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) results on local observables of the Bose–Hubbard model with box disorder with high accuracy. At strong interactions, the phase boundaries are reproduced qualitatively but shifted with respect to the ones observed with QMC due to the extremely low condensate fraction in the superfluid phase. Deep in the strongly-disordered weakly-interacting regime, the simple reference system employed is insufficient and no stationary solutions can be found within its restricted variational subspace. By systematically analyzing thermodynamical observables and the spectral function, we find that the strongly interacting Bose glass is characterized by different regimes, depending on which local occupations are activated as a function of the disorder strength. We find that the particles delocalize into isolated superfluid lakes over a strongly localized background around maximally-occupied sites whenever these sites are particularly rare. Our results indicate that the transition from the Bose glass to the superfluid phase around unit filling at strong interactions is driven by the percolation of superfluid lakes which form around doubly occupied sites.
We extend the self-energy functional theory to the case of interacting lattice bosons in the presence of symmetry breaking and quenched disorder. The self-energy functional we derive depends only on the self-energies of the disorder-averaged propagators, allowing for the construction of general non-perturbative approximations. Using a simple single-site reference system with only three variational parameters, we are able to reproduce numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) results on local observables of the Bose–Hubbard model with box disorder with high accuracy. At strong interactions, the phase boundaries are reproduced qualitatively but shifted with respect to the ones observed with QMC due to the extremely low condensate fraction in the superfluid phase. Deep in the strongly-disordered weakly-interacting regime, the simple reference system employed is insufficient and no stationary solutions can be found within its restricted variational subspace. By systematically analyzing thermodynamical observables and the spectral function, we find that the strongly interacting Bose glass is characterized by different regimes, depending on which local occupations are activated as a function of the disorder strength. We find that the particles delocalize into isolated superfluid lakes over a strongly localized background around maximally-occupied sites whenever these sites are particularly rare. Our results indicate that the transition from the Bose glass to the superfluid phase around unit filling at strong interactions is driven by the percolation of superfluid lakes which form around doubly occupied sites.
This thesis is dedicated to the derivation and benchmarking of self-consistent numerical methods that can be applied to interacting bosonic lattice models. The central goal is to derive methods with low numerical complexity but high accuracy, to be applied to complex systems which are out-of reach for established methods such as path integral quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) or the density matrix renormalization group. In the first part we derive the self-energy functional theory (SFT) for bosons. Building upon previous works on lattice systems without U(1)-symmetry-breaking, we systematically extend SFT to the possibility of a broken U(1)-symmetry and the presence of disorder. SFT incorporates bosonic dynamical mean-field theory as a certain limit, and represents a general non-perturbative framework, enabling the construction of diagrammatically sound approximations in the thermodynamical limit that are controlled in the number of optimization parameters. Using just three variational parameters, we are able to study the Bose-Hubbard model both in its clean version and in the presence of local disorder, showing excellent agreement with numerically exact QMC results. We systematically analyze the corresponding spectral functions, which cannot be fully captured by QMC. In particular, we find that in the presence of disorder the phase transition from the Bose glass to the superfluid phase at strong interactions is driven by the percolation of superfluid lakes which form around doubly occupied sites, leading to a small condensate fraction over a strongly-localized background. The second part is dedicated to the derivation of reciprocal cluster mean-field theory (RCMF) and its application to the strongly-interacting Harper-Hofstadter-Mott model (HHMm). In RCMF the full lattice in the thermodynamical limit is projected onto finite-size clusters, which are decoupled in reciprocal space through a mean-field decoupling approximation, crucially preserving the symmetries of the non-interacting dispersion. The resulting groundstate phase diagram of the HHMm exhibits band insulating, striped superfluid, and supersolid phases. Furthermore, we observe gapless uncondensed liquid phases at integer fillings, and a metastable competing fractional quantum Hall (fQH) phase. The fQH phase, predicted as the groundstate by other methods, is most likely underestimated by RCMF. We then show how a quasi-one-dimensional geometry stabilizes gapped topologically non-trivial groundstates in the HHMm. We observe quasi-one-dimensional analogues of fQH phases at fillings 1/2 and 3/2, and unconventional gapped non-degenerate groundstates at integer filling with quantized Hall responses. By systematically comparing results computed with RCMF and exact diagonalization (ED), we are able to give conclusive quantitative answers on the phase boundaries of the system, as the two methods approach the thermodynamical limit from opposite sides, since RCMF favours gapless and ED gapped phases.
We derive the self-energy functional theory for bosonic lattice systems with broken U(1) symmetry by parametrizing the bosonic Baym-Kadanoff effective action in terms of one- and two-point self-energies. The formalism goes beyond other approximate methods such as the pseudoparticle variational cluster approximation, the cluster composite boson mapping, and the Bogoliubov+U theory. It simplifies to bosonic dynamical-mean-field theory when constraining to local fields, whereas when neglecting kinetic contributions of noncondensed bosons, it reduces to the static mean-field approximation. To benchmark the theory, we study the Bose-Hubbard model on the two- and three-dimensional cubic lattice, comparing with exact results from path integral quantum Monte Carlo. We also study the frustrated square lattice with next-nearest-neighbor hopping, which is beyond the reach of Monte Carlo simulations. A reference system comprising a single bosonic state, corresponding to three variational parameters, is sufficient to quantitatively describe phase boundaries and thermodynamical observables, while qualitatively capturing the spectral functions, as well as the enhancement of kinetic fluctuations in the frustrated case. On the basis of these findings, we propose self-energy functional theory as the omnibus framework for treating bosonic lattice models, in particular, in cases where path integral quantum Monte Carlo methods suffer from severe sign problems (e.g., in the presence of nontrivial gauge fields or frustration). Self-energy functional theory enables the construction of diagrammatically sound approximations that are quantitatively precise and controlled in the number of optimization parameters but nevertheless remain computable by modest means.
Among the various numerical techniques to study the physics of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems, the self-energy functional approach (SFA) has become increasingly important. In its previous form, however, SFA is not applicable to Bose-Einstein condensation or superfluidity. In this paper, we show how to overcome this shortcoming. To this end, we identify an appropriate quantity, which we term D, that represents the correlation correction of the condensate order parameter, as it does the self-energy for Green's function. An appropriate functional is derived, which is stationary at the exact physical realization of D and of the self-energy. Its derivation is based on a functional-integral representation of the grand potential followed by an appropriate sequence of Legendre transformations. The approach is not perturbative and, therefore, applicable to a wide range of models with local interactions. We show that the variational cluster approach based on the extended self-energy functional is equivalent to the ``pseudoparticle'' approach proposed in Phys. Rev. B 83, 134507 (2011). We present results for the superfluid density in the two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, which shows a remarkable agreement with those of quantum-Monte-Carlo calculations.
The question of how the low-energy properties of disordered quantum systems may be connected to exotic localization phenomena at high energy is a key open question in the context of quantum glasses and many-body localization. In the preceding Letter [L. Villa, S. J. Thomson, and L. Sanchez-Palencia, preceding Letter, Phys. Rev. A 104, L021301 (2021)] we have shown that key features of the excitation spectrum of a disordered system can be efficiently probed from out-of-equilibrium dynamics following a quantum quench, providing distinctive signatures of the various phases. Here we extend this work by providing a more-in-depth study of the behavior of the quench spectral functions associated with different observables and investigating an extended parameter regime. We provide a detailed introduction to quench spectroscopy for disordered systems and show how spectral properties can be probed using both local operators and two-point correlation functions. We benchmark the technique using the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model in the presence of a random external potential, focusing on the low-lying excitations, and demonstrate that quench spectroscopy can distinguish the Mott insulator, superfluid, and Bose glass phases. We then explicitly reconstruct the zero-temperature phase diagram of the disordered Bose-Hubbard at fixed filling using two independent methods, experimentally accessible via both time-of-flight imaging and quantum gas microscopy, respectively, and demonstrate that quench spectroscopy can give valuable insights into the distribution of rare regions within disordered systems.
We study the ground-state properties of ultracold bosons in an optical lattice in the regime of strong interactions. The system is described by a non-standard Bose–Hubbard model with both occupation-dependent tunneling and on-site interaction. We find that for sufficiently strong coupling, the system features a phase transition from a Mott insulator with one particle per site to a superfluid of spatially extended particle pairs living on top of the Mott background—instead of the usual transition to a superfluid of single particles/holes. Increasing the interaction further, a superfluid of particle pairs localized on a single site (rather than being extended) on top of the Mott background appears. This happens at the same interaction strength where the Mott-insulator phase with two particles per site is destroyed completely by particle–hole fluctuations for arbitrarily small tunneling. In another regime, characterized by weak interaction but high occupation numbers, we observe a dynamical instability in the superfluid excitation spectrum. The new ground state is a superfluid, forming a two-dimensional (2D) slab, localized along one spatial direction that is chosen spontaneously.
Abstract We analyse the distinction between the three different ground states presented by a system of spinless bosons with short-range interactions submitted to a random potential using the disordered Bose–Hubbard model. The criteria for identifying the superfluid, the Mott-insulator, and the Bose-glass phases at finite temperatures are discussed for small values of the kinetic energy associated with the tunnelling of particles between potential wells. Field theoretical considerations are applied in order to construct a diagrammatic hopping expansion to the finite-temperature Green’s function. By performing a summation of subsets of diagrams we are able to find the condition to the long-range correlations which leads to the phase boundary between superfluid and insulating phases. The perturbative expression to the local correlations allows us to calculate an approximation to the single-particle density of states of low-energy excitations in the presence of small hopping, which characterizes unambiguously the distinction between the Mott-insulator and the Bose-glass phases. We obtain the phase diagram for bounded on-site disorder. It is demonstrated that our analysis is capable of going beyond the mean-field theory results for the classification of these different ground states.