We simulate quantum degenerate Bose gases at finite temperatures in a grand canonical ensemble and use the Bose-Hubbard model which can describe the dynamics of ultracold bosonic atoms in optical and magnetic lattices. We study ultracold atoms with the gauge P-representation in 1D with 1, 2 (double well), 3, 7 and 11 sites and study quantum correlations and other physical quantities at different temperatures across the superfluid to Mott insulator quantum phase transition. Moreover, using a truncated number-state basis and the gauge P-representation, we show that the Mott lobes are not present unless the temperature is below a certain value.
We simulate quantum degenerate Bose gases at finite temperatures in a grand canonical ensemble and use the Bose-Hubbard model which can describe the dynamics of ultracold bosonic atoms in optical and magnetic lattices. We study ultracold atoms with the gauge P-representation in 1D with 1, 2 (double well), 3, 7 and 11 sites and study quantum correlations and other physical quantities at different temperatures across the superfluid to Mott insulator quantum phase transition. Moreover, using a truncated number-state basis and the gauge P-representation, we show that the Mott lobes are not present unless the temperature is below a certain value.
Finite temperature correlations in the Bose-Hubbard model: application of the Gauge P representation
We study ultracold Bose gases in periodic potentials as described by the Bose-Hubbard model. In 1D and at finite temperature, we simulate ultracold Bose gases in imaginary time with the gauge P representation. We study various quantities including the Luttinger parameter K, which is important for locating the boundaries of the Mott insulator lobes, and find a simple relation for the kinetic energy part of the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian. We show that for J=0, the stepwise pattern of the average number of particles per lattice site versus the chemical potential vanishes at temperatures above T≈0.1U. Also, at chemical potential μ=0.5U and temperature T=0.5U by increasing J, the relative value of the number fluctuation decreases and approaches that of a coherent state.
Ultracold atomic gases may be the ultimate quantum simulator.These isolated systems have the lowest temperatures in the observable universe, and their properties and interactions can be precisely and accurately tuned across a full spectrum of behaviors, from few-body physics to highly-correlated many-body effects.The ability to impose potentials on and tune interactions within ultracold gases to mimic complex systems mean they could become a theorist's playground.One of their great strengths, however, is also one of the largest obstacles to this dream: isolation.This thesis touches on both of these themes.First, methods to characterize phases and quantum critical points, and to construct finite temperature phase diagrams using experimentally accessible observables in the Bose Hubbard model are discussed.Then, the transition from a weakly to a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture in the continuum is analyzed using zero temperature numerical techniques.Real materials can be emulated by ultracold atomic gases loaded into optical lattice potentials.We discuss the characteristics of a single boson species trapped in an optical lattice (described by the Bose Hubbard model) and the hallmarks of the quantum critical region that separates the superfluid and the Mott insulator ground states.We propose a method to map the quantum critical region using the single, experimentally accessible, local quantity R, the ratio of compressibility to local number fluctuations.The procedure to map a phase diagram with R is easily generalized to inhomogeneous systems and generic many-body Hamiltonians.We illustrate it here using quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the 2D Bose Hubbard model.Secondly, we investigate the transition from a degenerate Fermi gas weakly coupled List of Tables Table Page 2.1 Techniques to Probe Atoms in Optical Lattices . . . . . .
We study the thermodynamics of ultracold Bose atoms in optical lattices by numerically diagonalizing the mean-field Hamiltonian of the Bose-Hubbard model. This method well describes the behavior of long-range correlations and therefore is valid deep in the superfluid phase. For the homogeneous Bose-Hubbard model, we draw the finite-temperature phase diagram and calculate the superfluid density at unity filling. We evaluate the finite-temperature effects in a recent experiment probing number fluctuation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 090401 (2006)], and find that our finite-temperature curves give a better fitting to the experimental data, implying non-negligible temperature effects in this experiment.
Bosonic atoms confined in optical lattices can exist in two different phases, Mott insulator and superfluid, depending on the strength of the system parameters, such as the on-site interaction between particles and the hopping parameter. This work is motivated by the fact that nondegenerate perturbation theory applied to the mean-field approximation of the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian at both zero and finite temperature fails to give consistent results in the vicinity of the Mott insulator--superfluid phase transition, e.g., the order parameter calculated via nondegenerate perturbation theory reveals an unphysical behavior between neighboring Mott lobes, which is an explicit consequence of degeneracy problems that artificially arise from such a treatment. This problem also appears in other bosonic systems that present similar Mott-lobe structures. Therefore, in order to fix this problem, we propose a finite-temperature degenerate perturbation theory approach based on a projection operator formalism which ends up solving such degeneracy problems in order to obtain physically consistent results for the order parameter near the phase transition.
Ultracold bosonic gases in optical lattices are strongly correlated quantum systems similar to solids. The strong correlation between the electrons in a solid on the one hand, and the bosonic atoms in optical lattice on the other, exhibit various quantum phenomena like insulation, conductivity, localization of electrons and atoms, respectively. Controlled by the intensity of the lattice laser, the ultracold bosonic gas can be transferred from a regime with superfluid character for shallow lattices into a regime of strong correlations, the Mott insulator. As an additional external parameter besides the lattice depth, one can generate spatial inhomogeneities by superimposing an additional standing wave (so-called two-color superlattices), which gives rise to localization effects or the formation of a Bose-glass phase. In the present work, numerical simulations are employed in order to investigate characteristic signatures of the quantum phases in the low-energy excitation spectrum of one-dimensional systems. We simulate temporal small amplitude modulations of the optical lattice in analogy to experiments, and evaluate the response of the system from the time-evolved initial state. The lattice systems are described in the framework of the Bose-Hubbard model. For the evaluation of the time-evolved state, we employ several numerical methods. We analyze systems of small size (6 particles on 6 sites) using an exact time-evolution by integration of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The formulation of an importance truncation scheme enables us to retain only the relevant components of the model space in the strongly correlated regime and, thus, allows for the investigation of systems with 10 particles on 10 sites using exact time-evolution. Based on this method, we present results of the Mott-insulating regime as well as for the Bose-glass phase. Furthermore, we employ particle-hole methods, which allow for the treatment of systems with experimental lattice sizes and particle numbers. Starting from the equation of motion method we adapt the Tamm-Dancoff approximation as well as the random-phase approximation for the occupation number representation of the Bose-Hubbard model. We present results of simulations of up to 50 particles on 50 sites and discuss the impact of the lattice depth on the low-energy excitations (U-resonance). Moreover, the impact of a two-color superlattice and the variation of its amplitude is investigated.
By using slave particle (slave boson and slave fermion) techniques on the Bose-Hubbard model, we study the finite temperature properties of ultracold Bose gases in optical lattices. The phase diagrams at finite temperature are depicted by including different types of slave particles and the effect of the finite types of slave particles is estimated. The superfluid density is evaluated using the Landau second order phase transition theory. The atom density, excitation spectrum, and dispersion curve are also computed at various temperatures, and how the Mott-insulator evolves as the temperature increases is demonstrated. For most quantities to be calculated, we find that there are no qualitative differences in using the slave boson or the slave fermion approaches. However, when studying the stability of the mean field state, we find that in contrast to the slave fermion approach, the slave boson mean field state is not stable. Although the slave boson mean field theory gives a qualitatively correct phase boundary, it corresponds to a local maximum of Landau free energy and cannot describe the second order phase transition because the coefficient a4 of the fourth order term is always negative in the free energy expansion.