The interplay between disorder and interactions has a large impact on the properties of quantum systems. Although it is present in any real physical system, disorder is difficult to control, to tune, and therefore to study. Even more challenging is the investigation of the combined effect of disorder and interactions. While non-interacting particles can be localized by disorder, interactions can support superfluidity, a state of matter normally impervious to disorder. The complex interplay between the two can lead to new, unconventional phases, still not completely understood neither in theory nor in experiments. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices represent an ideal test-bed to study the physical properties of disordered systems.
The interplay between disorder and interactions has a large impact on the properties of quantum systems. Although it is present in any real physical system, disorder is difficult to control, to tune, and therefore to study. Even more challenging is the investigation of the combined effect of disorder and interactions. While non-interacting particles can be localized by disorder, interactions can support superfluidity, a state of matter normally impervious to disorder. The complex interplay between the two can lead to new, unconventional phases, still not completely understood neither in theory nor in experiments. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices represent an ideal test-bed to study the physical properties of disordered systems.
Disorder is everywhere in nature and it has a fundamental impact on the behavior of many quantum systems. The presence of a small amount of disorder, in fact, can dramatically change the coherence and transport properties of a system. Despite the growing interest in this topic, a complete understanding of the issue is still missing. An open question, for example, is the description of the interplay of disorder and interactions, which has been predicted to give rise to exotic states of matter such as quantum glasses or many-body localization. In this review, we will present an overview of experimental observations with disordered quantum gases, focused on one-dimensional bosons, and we will connect them with theoretical predictions.
Disorder and interactions both play crucial roles in quantum transport. Decades ago, Mott showed that electron-electron interactions can lead to insulating behavior in materials that conventional band theory predicts to be conducting. Soon thereafter, Anderson demonstrated that disorder can localize a quantum particle through the wave interference phenomenon of Anderson localization. Although interactions and disorder both separately induce insulating behavior, the interplay of these two ingredients is subtle and often leads to surprising behavior at the periphery of our current understanding. Modern experiments probe these phenomena in a variety of contexts (e.g. disordered superconductors, cold atoms, photonic waveguides, etc.); thus, theoretical and numerical advancements are urgently needed. In this thesis, we report progress on understanding two contexts in which the interplay of disorder and interactions is especially important. The first is the so-called “dirty” or random boson problem. In the past decade, a strong-disorder renormalization group (SDRG) treatment by Altman, Kafri, Polkovnikov, and Refael has raised the possibility of a new unstable fixed point governing the superfluid-insulator transition in the one-dimensional dirty boson problem. This new critical behavior may take over from the weak-disorder criticality of Giamarchi and Schulz when disorder is sufficiently strong. We analytically determine the scaling of the superfluid susceptibility at the strong-disorder fixed point and connect our analysis to recent Monte Carlo simulations by Hrahsheh and Vojta. We then shift our attention to two dimensions and use a numerical implementation of the SDRG to locate the fixed point governing the superfluid-insulator transition there. We identify several universal properties of this transition, which are fully independent of the microscopic features of the disorder. The second focus of this thesis is the interplay of localization and interactions in systems with high energy density (i.e., far from the usual low energy limit of condensed matter physics). Recent theoretical and numerical work indicates that localization can survive in this regime, provided that interactions are sufficiently weak. Stronger interactions can destroy localization, leading to a so-called many-body localization transition. This dynamical phase transition is relevant to questions of thermalization in isolated quantum systems: it separates a many-body localized phase, in which localization prevents transport and thermalization, from a conducting (“ergodic”) phase in which the usual assumptions of quantum statistical mechanics hold. Here, we present evidence that many-body localization also occurs in quasiperiodic systems that lack true disorder.
I describe in these notes the physical properties of one dimensional interacting quantum particles. In one dimension the combined effects of interactions and quantum fluctuations lead to a radically new physics quite different from the one existing in the higher dimensional world. Although the general physics and concepts are presented, I focuss in these notes on the properties of interacting bosons, with a special emphasis on cold atomic physics in optical lattices. The method of bosonization used to tackle such problems is presented. It is then used to solve two fundamental problems. The first one is the action of a periodic potential, leading to a superfluid to (Mott)-Insulator transition. The second is the action of a random potential that transforms the superfluid in phase localized by disorder, the Bose glass. Some discussion of other interesting extensions of these studies is given.
Abstract. I describe in these notes the physical properties of one dimensional interacting quantum particles. In one dimension the combined effects of interactions and quantum fluctuations lead to a radically new physics quite different from the one existing in the higher dimensional world. Although the general physics and concepts are presented, I focuss in these notes on the properties of interacting bosons, with a special emphasis on cold atomic physics in optical lattices. The method of bosonization used to tackle such problems is presented. It is then used to solve two fundamental problems. The first one is the action of a periodic potential, leading to a superfluid to (Mott)-Insulator transition. The second is the action of a random potential that transforms the superfluid in phase localized by disorder, the Bose glass. Some discussion of other interesting extensions of these studies is given. INTRODUCTION AND CHOICE OF CONTENTS One-dimensional systems of interacting particles are particularly fascinating both from a theoretical and experimental point of view. Such systems have been extensively investigated theoretically for more than 40 years now. They are wonderful systems in which interactions play a very special role and whose physics is drastically different
Disorder plays a fundamental role in many fields of physics such as condensed-matter physics, optics, acoustics, or atomic physics. It is responsible for a number of surprizing effects, such as Anderson localization, metal-insulator transitions and intriguing glass phases. The inherent complexity of disordered systems poses outstanding challenges to the full understanding of these phenomena. In the last years, disorder has emerged as a major line of research in the field of ultracold quantum gases. The latter offer fascinating perspectives to better understand the effects of disorder in quantum systems, thanks not only to an unprecedented control of parameters, but also to their original properties. This Habilitation thesis reviews our recent contributions to the theory of disordered quantum gases along three main lines: - Anderson localization in disordered quantum gases; - Disorder in interacting Bose gases; - Simulating extended Hubbard and spin models with ultracold gases. On the one hand, we propose and analyze experiments aiming at realizing quantum simulators to address open questions of fundamental importance for the field of disordered systems. In this respect, we show that quantum gases offer promising perspectives. On the other hand, we lead prospective works, which in particular show that quantum gases have original properties. They hence shed new light on issues of broad interest in the field of disordered systems.
The transport of quantum particles in non ideal material media (eg the conduction of electrons in an imperfect crystal) is strongly affected by scattering from impurities of the medium. Even for a weak disorder, semi-classical theories, such as those based on the Boltzmann equation for matter-waves scattering from the impurities, often fail to describe transport properties and full quantum approaches are necessary. The properties of the quantum systems are of fundamental interest as they show intriguing and non-intuitive phenomena that are not yet fully understood such as Anderson localization, percolation, disorder-driven quantum phase transitions and the corresponding Bose-glass or spin-glass phases. Understanding quantum transport in amorphous solids is one of the main issues in this context, related to electric and thermal conductivities. Ultracold atomic gases can now be considered to revisit the problem of quantum conductivity and quantum transport under unique control possibilities. Dilute atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) and degenerate Fermi gases (DFG) are produced routinely taking advantage of the recent progress in cooling and trapping of neutral atoms. Transport has been widely investigated in controlled potentials with no defects, for instance periodic potentials (optical lattices). Controlled disordered potentials can also be produced with various techniques such as the use of magnetic traps designed on atomic chips with rough wires, the use of localized impurity atoms, the use of radio-frequency fields or the use of optical potentials. This recently lead to the observation of the Anderson Localisation of a BEC and the measurement of the diffusion coefficient of a 2D gaz in the presence of disorder.