Migration of Bosonic Particles across a Mott Insulator to a Superfluid Phase Interface

Journal Article · Fri Feb 22 04:00:00 EST 2008 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.100.070602· OSTI ID:21024780

Hartmann, Michael J; Plenio, Martin B ^[1]

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1. Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Imperial College London, SW7 2PG (United Kingdom)

We consider a boundary between a Mott insulator and a superfluid region of a Bose-Hubbard model at unit filling. Initially both regions are decoupled and cooled to their respective ground states. We show that, after switching on a small tunneling rate between both regions, all particles of the Mott region migrate to the superfluid area. This migration takes place whenever the difference between the chemical potentials of both regions is less than the maximal energy of any eigenmode of the superfluid. We verify our results numerically with density matrix renormalization group simulations and explain them analytically with a master equation approximation, finding good agreement between both approaches. Finally we carry out a feasibility study for the observation of the effect in coupled arrays of microcavities and optical lattices.

• OSTI ID: 21024780
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 100; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
APPROXIMATIONS
DENSITY MATRIX
EQUATIONS
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
GROUND STATES
HUBBARD MODEL
INTERFACES
POTENTIALS
RENORMALIZATION
SIMULATION
SUPERFLUIDITY
TUNNEL EFFECT