Two-dimensional hard core bosons suffer strong scattering in the high-temperature resistive state at half filling. The dynamical conductivity $\ensuremath{\sigma}(\ensuremath{\omega})$ is calculated using nonperturbative tools such as continued fractions, series expansions, and exact diagonalization. We find a large temperature range with linearly increasing resistivity and broad dynamical conductivity, signaling a breakdown of Boltzmann-Drude quasiparticle transport theory. At zero temperature, a high-frequency peak in $\ensuremath{\sigma}(\ensuremath{\omega})$ appears above a ``Higgs mass'' gap and corresponds to order-parameter magnitude fluctuations. We discuss the apparent similarity between conductivity of hard core bosons and phenomenological characteristics of cuprates, including the universal scaling of Homes et al. [Nature (London) 430, 539 (2004)].
Magnetotransport of hard-core bosons is studied using an
XXZ quantum spin model representation, appropriately gauged on the torus to allow for an external magnetic field. We find strong lattice effects near half filling. An effective quantum mechanical description of the vortex degrees of freedom is derived. Using semiclassical and numerical analysis we compute the vortex-hopping energy
tV, which at half filling is close to magnitude of the boson hopping energy. The critical quantum melting density of the vortex lattice is estimated at $6.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ vortices per unit cell. The Hall conductance is computed from the Chern numbers of the low-energy eigenstates. At zero temperature, it reverses sign abruptly at half filling. At precisely half filling, all eigenstates are doubly degenerate for any odd number of flux quanta. We prove the exact degeneracies on the torus by constructing an SU(2) algebra of point-group symmetries, associated with the center of vorticity. This result is interpreted as if each vortex carries an internal spin-half degree of freedom, which can manifest itself as a charge density modulation in its core. Our findings suggest interesting experimental implications for vortex motion of cold atoms in optical lattices and magnet transport of short coherence length superconductors.
We calculate the Drude weight in the superfluid (SF) and supersolid (SS) phases of the hard-core boson (HCB) model on a square lattice using stochastic series expansion (SSE). We demonstrate from our numerical calculations that the normal phase of HCBs in two dimensions can be an ideal conductor with dissipationless transport. In two dimensions, when the ground state is a SF, the superfluid stiffness drops to zero with a Kosterlitz-Thouless type transition at
TKT. The Drude weight, though is equal to the stiffness below
TKT, surprisingly, stays finite even for a range of temperatures above
TKT indicating the nondissipative transport in the normal state of this system. In contrast to this, in a three-dimensional SF phase, where the superfluid stiffness goes to zero continuously via a second-order phase transition at
Tc, the Drude weight goes to zero at
Tc, as expected. We also calculated the Drude weight in a two-dimensional SS phase, where the charge density wave (CDW) order coexists with superfluidity. For the SS phase we studied, superfluidity is lost via a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at
TKT and the transition temperature for the CDW order is larger than
TKT. In striped SS phase where the CDW order breaks the rotational symmetry of the lattice, the system behaves like an ideal conductor for a range of temperatures above
TKT along the lattice direction parallel to the stripes, while along the direction perpendicular to the stripes it behaves like an insulator for all
T>TKT. In contrast to this, in the star-SS phase, the Drude weight along both lattice directions goes to zero along with the superfluid stiffness and for
T>TKT we have the finite temperature phase of a CDW insulator.
A strong periodic potential generally enhances the short wavelength fluctuations of a superfluid beyond the validity of standard continuum approaches. Here we report some recent results on hard core bosons on finite lattices. We find several interesting effects of the periodic potential on the ground state, vortex dynamics, and and Hall conductivity. For example, the Magnus field on a vortex abruptly reverses direction at half filling. A rotating Bose condensate on an optical lattice may allow an experimental test of our results. Insight may also be gained about strongly fluctuating superconductors modelled by charge 2e lattice bosons.
Quantum Monte Carlo simulations are used to investigate the two-dimensional superfluid properties of the hard-core boson model, which show a strong dependence on particle density and disorder. We obtain further evidence that a half-filled clean system becomes superfluid via a finite-temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. The relationship between low-temperature superfluid density and particle density is symmetric and appears parabolic about the half filling point. Disorder appears to break the superfluid phase up into two distinct localized states, depending on the particle density. We find that these results strongly correlate with the results of several experiments on high-
Tc superconductors.