Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866918071197761536 |
|---|---|
| author | Greiner, Markus Mandel, Olaf Esslinger, Tilman Hänsch, Theodor W Bloch, Immanuel |
| author_facet | Greiner, Markus Mandel, Olaf Esslinger, Tilman Hänsch, Theodor W Bloch, Immanuel |
| contents | For a system at a temperature of absolute zero, all thermal fluctuations are frozen out, while quantum fluctuations prevail. These microscopic quantum fluctuations can induce a macroscopic phase transition in the ground state of a many-body system when the relative strength of two competing energy terms is varied across a critical value. Here we observe such a quantum phase transition in a Bose-Einstein condensate with repulsive interactions, held in a three-dimensional optical lattice potential. As the potential depth of the lattice is increased, a transition is observed from a superfluid to a Mott insulator phase. In the superfluid phase, each atom is spread out over the entire lattice, with long-range phase coherence. But in the insulating phase, exact numbers of atoms are localized at individual lattice sites, with no phase coherence across the lattice; this phase is characterized by a gap in the excitation spectrum. We can induce reversible changes between the two ground states of the system. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_21303 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms Greiner, Markus Mandel, Olaf Esslinger, Tilman Hänsch, Theodor W Bloch, Immanuel Quantum Gases For a system at a temperature of absolute zero, all thermal fluctuations are frozen out, while quantum fluctuations prevail. These microscopic quantum fluctuations can induce a macroscopic phase transition in the ground state of a many-body system when the relative strength of two competing energy terms is varied across a critical value. Here we observe such a quantum phase transition in a Bose-Einstein condensate with repulsive interactions, held in a three-dimensional optical lattice potential. As the potential depth of the lattice is increased, a transition is observed from a superfluid to a Mott insulator phase. In the superfluid phase, each atom is spread out over the entire lattice, with long-range phase coherence. But in the insulating phase, exact numbers of atoms are localized at individual lattice sites, with no phase coherence across the lattice; this phase is characterized by a gap in the excitation spectrum. We can induce reversible changes between the two ground states of the system. |
| title | Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms |
| topic | Quantum Gases |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21303 |