arXiv:cond-mat/0701761 · Physical Review A
Competition between vortex unbinding and tunneling in an optical lattice
Miguel A. Cazalilla, Anı́bal Iucci, Thierry Giamarchi
Abstract
We study a system of two-dimensional Bose gases trapped in minima of a deep one-dimensional optical lattice potential. Increasing the tunneling amplitude between adjacent gases drives a deconfinement transition to a phase where coherence is established between neighboring two-dimensional gases. We compute the signature of this transition in the interference pattern of the system as well as in its rotational response, which provides a direct measurement of the superfluidity in the system.