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arXiv:cond-mat/0509671 · Physical Review Letters

Universal Scaling of the Conductivity at the Superfluid-Insulator Phase Transition

Jurij Šmakov, Erik Schwartz Sørensen

Published Oct 27, 2005• 48 citations
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Abstract

The scaling of the conductivity at the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in two dimensions is studied by numerical simulations of the Bose-Hubbard model. In contrast to previous studies, we focus on properties of this model in the experimentally relevant thermodynamic limit at finite temperature T. We find clear evidence for deviations from omega k scaling of the conductivity towards omega k/T scaling at low Matsubara frequencies omega k. By careful analytic continuation using Padé approximants we show that this behavior carries over to the real frequency axis where the conductivity scales with omega/T at small frequencies and low temperatures. We estimate the universal dc conductivity to be sigma* = 0.45(5)Q2/h, distinct from previous estimates in the T = 0, omega/T >> 1 limit.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.95.180603

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The scaling of the conductivity at the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in two dimensions is studied by numerical simulations of the Bose-Hubbard model. In contrast to previous studies, we focus on properties of this model in the experimentally relevant thermodynamic limit at finite temperature T. We find clear evidence for deviations from omega k scaling of the conductivity towards omega k/T scaling at low Matsubara frequencies omega k. By careful analytic continuation using Padé approximants we show that this behavior carries over to the real frequency axis where the conductivity scales with omega/T at small frequencies and low temperatures. We estimate the universal dc conductivity to be sigma* = 0.45(5)Q2/h, distinct from previous estimates in the T = 0, omega/T >> 1 limit.
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We investigate the zero-temperature phase diagram of the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model with power-law hopping decaying with distance as 1/r^{α} using exact large scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations. For all 1<α≤3 the quantum phase transition from a superfluid and a Mott insulator at unit filling is found to be continuous and scale invariant, in marked contrast with the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) scenario that is recovered only for α>3. By performing finite-size scaling collapses of the superfluid stiffness and extracting dynamical and correlation-length exponents from the low-energy spectrum, we establish that these transitions define a distinct universality class throughout the long-range regime 1<α≤3. Analysis of the single-particle correlation functions and grand canonical phase diagram further reveals a sequence of ordering regimes within the superfluid phase: true long-range order for α≤2, anomalous quasi-long-range order for 2<α≤3, and conventional algebraic decay for α>3. Our exact numerical results provide a benchmark to compare theories of long-range quantum models and are relevant for experiments with cold neutral atom, molecules and ion chains.
We study finite-temperature phase transitions in a two-dimensional boson Hubbard model with zero-point quantum fluctuations via Monte Carlo simulations of a quantum rotor model and construct the corresponding phase diagram. Compressibility shows a thermally activated gapped behavior in the insulating regime. Finite-size scaling of the superfluid stiffness clearly shows the nature of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. The transition temperature T(c) confirms a scaling relation T(c) proportional, rho(0)(x), with x=1.0. Some evidence of anomalous quantum behavior at low temperatures is presented.
In contrast to the case of free fermions which have all states localized in two dimensions, dirty, repulsively-interacting bosons exhibit a zero-temperature localization phase transition between superconducting and insulating states as disorder is increased. The conductivity σ* = g (2 e ) 2 / h at the quantum critical point is a universal critical amplitude analogous to the universal jump in superfluid density at the classical Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Using numerical Monte Carlo methods we compute the value of g for disorder-tuned transitions with and without long-range Coulomb interactions. We argue that this model is relevant to experiments on superconducting thin films and Josephson junction arrays.
We calculate the dynamical conductivity σðωÞ and the bosonic (pair) spectral function PðωÞ from quantum Monte Carlo simulations across clean and disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transitions (SITs).We identify characteristic energy scales in the superconducting and insulating phases that vanish at the transition due to enhanced quantum fluctuations, despite the persistence of a robust fermionic gap across the SIT.Disorder leads to enhanced absorption in σðωÞ at low frequencies compared to the SIT in a clean system.Disorder also expands the quantum critical region, due to a change in the universality class, with an underlying T ¼ 0 critical point with a universal low-frequency conductivity σ Ã ≃ 0.5ð4e 2 =hÞ.