Quasi-superfluid and Quasi-Mott phases of strongly interacting bosons in shallow optical lattice

Abstract

We explore the ground states of strongly interacting bosons in the vanishingly small and weak lattices using the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB) which calculate numerically exact many-body wave function. Two new many-body phases: fragmented or quasi superfluid (QSF) and incomplete fragmented Mott or quasi Mott insulator (QMI) are emerged due to the strong interplay between interaction and lattice depth. Fragmentation is utilized as a figure of merit to distinguish these two new phases. We utilize the eigenvalues of the reduced one-body density matrix and define an order parameter that characterizes the pathway from a very weak lattice to a deep lattice. We provide a detailed investigation through the measures of one- and two-body correlations and information entropy. We find that the structures in one- and two-body coherence are good markers to understand the gradual built-up of intra-well correlation and decay of inter-well correlation with increase in lattice depth.