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.
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
This chapter gives an introduction to the physics of interacting quantum systems, both bosonic and fermionic. Section 1.2 introduces the physics of quantum particles in periodic lattices. Section 1.3 examines, for the case of bosons, how the combined effects of lattice and interaction can turn the system into an insulator, the so-called Mott insulator, and discusses the corresponding physics. Section 1.4 discusses what happens when the system is one-dimensional. Section 1.5 moves on to the case of fermions. It discusses first Fermi-liquid theory and the concept of quasi-particles, Landau’s description of the low-energy excitations of interacting fermion systems. Section 1.6 shows how, like the method for bosons, the combination of a lattice and strong interactions can turn a Fermi liquid into a Mott insulator. Section 1.7 looks at the properties of one-dimensional fermions, shows how Fermi liquid theory fails because low-energy excitations are now collective modes instead of quasi-particles, and examines the corresponding physics for both the conducting and insulating phases. Finally, Section 1.8 draws some conclusions and give some perspectives.
This thesis covers most of my work in the field of ultracold atoms loaded in optical lattices. It makes a route through the physics of cold atoms in periodic potentials starting from the simple noninteracting system and going into the many-body physics that describes the strongly correlated Mott insulator regime. Even though this thesis is a theoretical work all the chapters are linked either with experiments already done or with ongoing experimental efforts. This thesis can be divided into four different parts. The first part comprises chapters 1 to 3. In these chapters, after a brief introduction to the field of optical lattices I review the fundamental aspects pertaining to the physics of systems in periodic potentials. The second part deals with the superfluid weakly interacting regime where standard mean field techniques can be applied. This is covered in chapters 4 and 5. Specifically, chapter 4 introduces the discrete nonlinear Schroedinger equation (DNLSE) and uses it to model some experiments. In chapter 5 I go one step further and include the small quantum fluctuations neglected in the DNLSE by studying quadratic approximations of the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian. Chapters 6 to 8 can be grouped as the third part of the thesis. In them I adopt an effective action formalism, the so called two particle irreducible effective action (2PI) together with the closed time path (CTP) formalism to study far-from-equilibrium dynamics. The many-body techniques discussed in these chapters systematically include higher order quantum corrections, not included in the quadratic approximations of the Hamiltonian, which we show are crucial for a correct description of the quantum dynamics outside the very weakly interacting regime. Finally, chapter 9 to 11 are devoted to study the Mott insulator phase. In these chapters using perturbation theory I study the Mott insulator ground state and its excitation spectrum, the response of the system to Bragg spectroscopy, and propose a mechanism to correct for the residual quantum coherences inherent to the Mott insulator ground state. Even though small these are not ideal for the use of neutral atoms in optical lattice as a tool for quantum computation.
This chapter gives an introduction to the physics of interacting quantum systems, both bosonic and fermionic. Section 1.2 introduces the physics of quantum particles in periodic lattices. Section 1.3 examines, for the case of bosons, how the combined effects of lattice and interaction can turn the system into an insulator, the so-called Mott insulator, and discusses the corresponding physics. Section 1.4 discusses what happens when the system is one-dimensional. Section 1.5 moves on to the case of fermions. It discusses first Fermi-liquid theory and the concept of quasi-particles, Landau’s description of the low-energy excitations of interacting fermion systems. Section 1.6 shows how, like the method for bosons, the combination of a lattice and strong interactions can turn a Fermi liquid into a Mott insulator. Section 1.7 looks at the properties of one-dimensional fermions, shows how Fermi liquid theory fails because low-energy excitations are now collective modes instead of quasi-particles, and examines the corresponding physics for both the conducting and insulating phases. Finally, Section 1.8 draws some conclusions and give some perspectives.
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.
The phase diagrams and phase transitions of bosons with short-ranged repulsive interactions moving in periodic and/or random external potentials at zero temperature are investigated with emphasis on the superfluid-insulator transition induced by varying a parameter such as the density. Bosons in periodic potentials (e.g., on a lattice) at T=0 exhibit two types of phases: a superfluid phase and Mott insulating phases characterized by integer (or commensurate) boson densities, by the existence of a gap for particle-hole excitations, and by zero compressibility. Generically, the superfluid onset transition in d dimensions from a Mott insulator to superfluidity is ``ideal,'' or mean field in character, but at special multicritical points with particle-hole symmetry it is in the universality class of the (d+1)-dimensional XY model. In the presence of disorder, a third, ``Bose glass'' phase exists. This phase is insulating because of the localization effects of the randomness and analogous to the Fermi glass phase of interacting fermions in a strongly disordered potential.The Bose glass phase is characterized by a finite compressibility, no gap, but an infinite superfluid susceptibility. In the presence of disorder the transition to superfluidity is argued to occur only from the Bose glass phase, and never directly from the Mott insulator. This zero-temperature superfluid-insulator transition is studied via generalizations of the Josephson scaling relation for the superfluid density at the ordinary \ensuremath{\lambda} transition, highlighting the crucial role of quantum fluctuations. The transition is found to have a dynamic critical exponent z exactly equal to d and correlation length and order-parameter correlation exponents \ensuremath{\nu} and \ensuremath{\eta} which satisfy the bounds \ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\ge}2/d and \ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\le}2-d, respectively. It is argued that the superfluid-insulator transition in the presence of disorder may have an upper critical dimension dc which is infinite, but a perturbative renormalization-group calculation wherein the critical exponents have mean-field values for weak disorder above d=4 is also discussed. Many of these conclusions are verified by explicit calculations on a model of one-dimensional bosons in the presence of both random and periodic potentials. The general results are applied to experiments on 4He absorbed in porous media such as Vycor. Some measurable properties of the superfluid onset are predicted exactly [e.g., the exponent x relating the \ensuremath{\lambda} transition temperature to the zero-temperature superfluid density is found to be d/2(d-1)], while stringent bounds are placed on others. Analysis of preliminary data is consistent with these predictions.