We investigate magnetic properties of Mott-insulating phases of ultracold Bose and Fermi spinor gases in optical lattices. We consider in particular the F = 2 Bose gas, and the F = 3/2 and 5/2 Fermi gases. We derive effective spin Hamiltonians for one and two atoms per site and discuss the possibilities of manipulating the magnetic properties of the system using optical Feshbach resonances. We discuss low temperature quantum phases of a Rb-87 gas in the F = 2 hyperfine state, as well as possible realizations of high spin Fermi gases with either Li-6 or Cs-132 atoms in the F = 3/2 state, and with Yb-173 atoms in the F = 5/2 state.
We investigate magnetic properties of Mott-insulating phases of ultracold Bose and Fermi spinor gases in optical lattices. We consider in particular the F = 2 Bose gas, and the F = 3/2 and 5/2 Fermi gases. We derive effective spin Hamiltonians for one and two atoms per site and discuss the possibilities of manipulating the magnetic properties of the system using optical Feshbach resonances. We discuss low temperature quantum phases of a Rb-87 gas in the F = 2 hyperfine state, as well as possible realizations of high spin Fermi gases with either Li-6 or Cs-132 atoms in the F = 3/2 state, and with Yb-173 atoms in the F = 5/2 state.
We investigate magnetic properties of Mott-insulating phases of ultracold Bose and Fermi spinor gases in optical lattices. We consider in particular the F = 2 Bose gas, and the F = 3/2 and 5/2 Fermi gases. We derive effective spin Hamiltonians for one and two atoms per site and discuss the possibilities of manipulating the magnetic properties of the system using optical Feshbach resonances. We discuss low temperature quantum phases of a 87 Rb gas in the F = 2 hyperfine state, as well as possible realizations of high spin Fermi gases with either 6 Li or 132 Cs atoms in the F = 3/2 state, and with 173 Yb atoms in the F = 5/2 state.
An important new development in the field of ultracold atomic gases is the study of the properties of these gases in a so-called optical lattice. An optical lattice is a periodic trapping potential for the atoms that is formed by the interference pattern of a few laser beams. A reason for the interest in these systems is that the effects of the interatomic interactions can be strongly enhanced. More specifically, it has been shown in a beautiful experiment by Greiner et al. in 2002 that by loading a Bose-Einstein condensate into an optical lattice it is possible for the system to undergo a quantum phase transition to a new quantum phase of matter, the so-called Mott insulator phase. Within this Mott insulator phase each lattice site is occupied by exactly one atom. This makes the Mott insulator phase especially well suited for applications in the field of quantum computation and quantum information processing. We have theoretically investigated the above mentioned quantum phase transition and our formalism allows for a description of the Mott insulator phase at nonzero temperatures. Another important experimental development in the field of ultracold atomic gases is the use of Feshbach resonances to control the interatomic interactions. Such a resonance occurs whenever two colliding atoms form a long-lived molecule for some time. The crucial point of a Feshbach resonance is that the above mentioned molecule has a magnetic moment that is not equal to twice the magnetic moment of the atom. As a consequence the energy difference between the two atoms and the molecule and hence the interactions between the atoms can be controlled by using an external magnetic field. By combining these two techniques, i.e, by trapping ultracold atomic gases in an optical lattice and by tuning a magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance there can be a new quantum phase transition between two superfluid phases. We gave derived the the theory for the description of these Feshbach resonances in optical lattices and applied it to various systems. To be a bit more precise, if we tune the external magnetic field such that the energy difference between a molecule and two atoms is sufficiently negative, then the gas consists of a Bose-Einstein condensate of molecules. In contrast, if the energy difference is large enough and positive we have a gas that consists primarily of a Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms. It turns out that these two limits are separated by an Ising-like quantum phase transition. By using atomic Bose gases near a Feshbach resonance detailed experimental studies which test the theoretical predictions of the statistical and dynamical properties of these quantum phase transitions can be made.
This chapter focuses on ultracold gases of atoms that possess internal spin structure. First, it considers spinor interactions, and then turns to trapped spinor Bose–Einstein condensates. In particular, the chapter discusses various possible mean field phases, spin textures, and topological defects. Next, it describes bosonic spinor gases in optical lattices, effective Hamiltonians, and possible quantum phases. Finally, spinor Fermi gases in optical lattices for spins larger than ½ are discussed.
Advances in pure optical trapping techniques now allow the creation of degenerate Bose gases with internal degrees of freedom. Systems such as 87Rb,39K, or 23Na in the F=1 hyperfine state offer an ideal platform for studying the interplay of superfluidity and quantum magnetism. Motivated by the experimental developments, we study ground-state phases of a two-component Bose gas loaded on an optical lattice. The system is described effectively by the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian with on-site and near-neighbor spin-spin interactions. An important feature of our investigation is the inclusion of interconversion (spin-flip) terms between the two species, which has been observed in optical lattice experiments. Using mean-field theory and quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we map out the phase diagram of the system. A rich variety of phases is identified, including antiferromagnetic (AF) Mott insulators and ferromagnetic and AF superfluids.
Ultracold atoms in optical lattices provide an extremely clean and controllable setting to explore quantum many-body phases of matter. Here we give a brief review of the strong-correlation physics that has been realized using such ultracold atoms in optical lattices ranging from the realization of Hubbard models to studies of quantum magnetism and the detection of single atoms with lattice site resolution. All this has opened up fundamentally new opportunities for the investigation of quantum many-body systems. Introduction Over the past years, ultracold atoms in optical lattices have emerged as versatile new systems to explore the physics of quantum many-body systems. On the one hand, they can be helpful in gaining a better understanding of known phases of matter and their dynamical behavior; on the other hand, they allow one to realize completely novel quantum systems that have not been studied before in nature [1, 2, 3]. Commonly, the approach of exploring quantum many-body systems in such a way is referred to as “quantum simulations.” Examples of some of the first strongly interacting many-body phases that have been realized both in lattices and in the continuum include the quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator [4, 5, 6], fermionic Mott insulators [7, 8], the achievement of a Tonks- Girardeau gas [9, 10], and the realization of the Bose-Einsten condensate (BEC)– Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) crossover (see also Chapter 12) in Fermi gas mixture [11] using Feshbach resonances [12]. In almost all of these experiments, detection was limited to time-of-flight imaging or more refined derived techniques that mainly characterized the momentum distribution of the quantum gas [2]. For several years, researchers in the field have therefore aspired to employ in situ single-particle detection methods for the analysis of ultracold quantum gases. Only recently has it become possible to implement such imaging techniques, marking a milestone for the characterization and manipulation of ultracold quantum gases [13, 14, 15, 16, 17]. In our discussion, we will focus on one of the most successful of these techniques based on high-resolution fluorescence imaging. Despite being a rather new technique, such quantum gas microscopy has already proven to be an enabling technology for probing and manipulating quantum many-body systems. For the first time, controllable and strongly interacting many-body systems, as realized with ultracold atoms, could be observed on a local scale [17, 16].
We present a review of properties of ultracold atomic Fermi-Bose mixtures in inhomogeneous and random optical lattices. In the strong interacting limit and at very low temperatures, fermions form, together with bosons or bosonic holes, composite fermions. Composite fermions behave as a spinless interacting Fermi gas, and in the presence of local disorder they interact via random couplings and feel effective random local potential. This opens a wide variety of possibilities of realizing various kinds of ultracold quantum disordered systems. In this paper we review these possibilities, discuss the accessible quantum disordered phases, and methods for their detection. The discussed quantum phases include Fermi glasses, quantum spin glasses, ``dirty'' superfluids, disordered metallic phases, and phases involving quantum percolation.