Disordered Quantum Solids

Thierry Giamarchi, E. Orignac

Thierry Giamarchi, E. Orignac

Due to the peculiar non-fermi liquid of one dimensional systems, disorder has particularly strong effects. We show that such systems belong to the more general class of disordered quantum solids. We discuss the physics of such disordered interacting systems and the methods that allows to treat them. In addition to, by now standard renormalization group methods, We explain how a simple variational approach allows to treat these problems even in case when the RG fails. We discuss various physical realizations of such disordered quantum solids both in one and higher dimensions (Wigner crystal, Bose glass). We investigate in details the interesting example of a disordered Mott insulator and argue that intermediate disorder can lead to a novel phase, the Mott glass, intermediate between a Mott and and Anderson insulator.

I. M. Lifshit︠s︡

Kohenjit Pebam, Laxmi Angom, Bhumika Thoudam +3 more

The introduction of disorder in the extended Bose-Hubbard model gives rise to new glassy quantum phases, namely the Bose-glass and disordered solid phases. In this work, we present a rich phase diagram of interacting bosons in a disordered two-dimensional optical lattice, modeled by the disordered Bose-Hubbard model. We systematically probe the effect of long-range interaction truncated to the nearest neighbors and next-nearest neighbors on the phase diagram. We investigate the zero-temperature ground-state quantum phases using the single-site Gutzwiller mean-field theory. We also employ strong-coupling perturbative expansion to identify the nature of ground-state solid phases analytically. At sufficiently high disorder strength, we observe a quantum phase transition between the disordered solid and Bose-glass phases. We have investigated this transition in greater detail using cluster Gutzwiller mean-field theory to study the effect of intersite correlations which is absent in the single-site Gutzwiller mean-field theory. We have also studied this phase transition from the perspective of percolation theory.

Ji-Ming Gao, Rong-An Tang, Ju-Kui Xue

By using the inhomogeneous mean-field theory, the phase diagram of the two-dimensional soft-core extended Bose-Hubbard model with both on-site and nearest-neighbor interactions in the presence of spatial disorder is determined. Rich phases, including Mott-insulator, checkerboard solid, supersolid, superfluid and disordered solid are obtained. Interestingly, due to the presence of disorder, a new disordered solid phase is found between the incompressible lobes, and it is demonstrated that the supersolid phase can survive in two-dimensional soft-core bosons. Furthermore, the system undergoes the phase transition from a disordered solid into a solid order or supersolid landscape when the disorder strength is increased. For weak nearest-neighbor repulsion, the increase of the disorder strength induces both checkerboard solid and supersolid phases shrinking to smaller hopping regions. However, for strong nearest-neighbor repulsion, the disorder stabilizes the supersolid phase and makes it occupying a remarkably broad region in the phase diagram. The analytical expressions for the phase boundaries between the incompressible and compressible phases are also obtained, which are in qualitative agreement with our numerical results.

Yosuke Nagaoka