arXiv subjects

J. Boronat

Publications and source records attributed to J. Boronat.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Luttinger liquid behavior of one-dimensional 3He

The ground-state properties of one-dimensional 3He are studied using quantum Monte Carlo methods. The equation of state is calculated in a wide range of physically relevant densities and is well reproduced by a power-series fit. The Luttinger liquid theory is found to describe the long-range properties of the correlation function. The density dependence of the Luttinger parameter is explicitly found and interestingly it shows a non-monotonic behavior. Depending on the density, the static structure factor can be a smooth function of the momentum or might contain a peak of a finite or infinite height. Although no phase transitions are present in the system, we identify a number of physically different regimes, including an ideal Fermi gas, a "Bose-gas", a "super-Tonks-Girardeau" regime, and a "quasi-crystal".

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Universality in molecular halo clusters

Ground state of weakly bound dimers and trimers with a radius extending well into the classically forbidden region is explored, with the goal to test the predicted universality of quantum halo states. The focus of the study are molecules consisting of T$\downarrow$, D$\downarrow$, $^3$He, $^4$He and alkali atoms, where interaction between particles is much better known than in the case of nuclei, which are traditional examples of quantum halos. The study of realistic systems is supplemented by model calculations in order to analyze how low-energy properties depend on the interaction potential. The use of variational and diffusion Monte Carlo methods enabled very precise calculation of both size and binding energy of the trimers. In the quantum halo regime, and for large values of scaled binding energies, all clusters follow almost the same universal line. As the scaled binding energy decreases, Borromean states separate from tango trimers.

physics.atm-clus↗

arXiv2014

Distinguishability, degeneracy and correlations in three harmonically trapped bosons in one-dimension

We study a system of two bosons of one species and a third boson of a second species in a one-dimensional parabolic trap at zero temperature. We assume contact repulsive inter- and intra-species interactions. By means of an exact diagonalization method we calculate the ground and excited states for the whole range of interactions. We use discrete group theory to classify the eigenstates according to the symmetry of the interaction potential. We also propose and validate analytical ansatzs gaining physical insight over the numerically obtained wavefunctions. We show that, for both approaches, it is crucial to take into account that the distinguishability of the third atom implies the absence of any restriction over the wavefunction when interchanging this boson with any of the other two. We find that there are degeneracies in the spectra in some limiting regimes, that is, when the inter-species and/or the intra-species interactions tend to infinity. This is in contrast with the three-identical boson system, where no degeneracy occurs in these limits. We show that, when tuning both types of interactions through a protocol that keeps them equal while they are increased towards infinity, the systems's ground state resembles that of three indistinguishable bosons. Contrarily, the systems's ground state is different from that of three-identical bosons when both types of interactions are increased towards infinity through protocols that do not restrict them to be equal. We study the coherence and correlations of the system as the interactions are tuned through different protocols, which permit to built up different correlations in the system and lead to different spatial distributions of the three atoms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Phase Transition with a Simple Variational Ansatz

We study the zero-temperature quantum phase transition between liquid and hcp solid helium-4. We use the variational method with a simple yet exchange-symmetric and fully explicit wavefunction. It is found that the optimized wavefunction undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking and describes the quantum solidification of helium at 22 atm. The explicit form of the wavefunction allows to consider various contributions to the phase transition. We find that the employed wavefunction is an excellent candidate for describing both a first-order quantum phase transition and the ground state of a Bose solid.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Single-particle vs. pair superfluidity in a bilayer system of dipolar bosons

We consider the ground state of a bilayer system of dipolar bosons, where dipoles are oriented by an external field in the direction perpendicular to the parallel planes. Quantum Monte Carlo methods are used to calculate the ground-state energy, the one-body and two-body density matrix, and the superfluid response as a function of the separation between layers. We find that by decreasing the interlayer distance for fixed value of the strength of the dipolar interaction, the system undergoes a quantum phase transition from a single-particle to a pair superfluid. The single-particle superfluid is characterized by a finite value of both the atomic condensate and the super-counterfluid density. The pair superfluid phase is found to be stable against formation of many-body cluster states and features a gap in the spectrum of elementary excitations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Phase diagram of dipolar bosons in 2D with tilted polarization

We analyze the ground state of a system of dipolar bosons moving in the $XY$ plane and such that their dipolar moments are all aligned in a fixed direction in space. We focus on the general case where the polarization field forms a generic angle $α$ with respect to the $Z$ axis. We use the Path Integral Ground State method to analyze the static properties of the system as both $α$ and the density $n$ vary over a wide range were the system is stable. We use the maximum of the static structure function as an order parameter to characterize the different phases and the transition lines among them. We find that aside of a superfluid gas and a solid phase, the system reaches a stripe phase at large tilting angles that is entirely induced by the anisotropic character of the interaction. We also show that the quantum phase transition from the gas to the stripe phase is of second order, and report approximate values for the critical exponents.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Quantum correlations and spatial localization in one-dimensional ultracold bosonic mixtures

We present the complete phase diagram for one-dimensional binary mixtures of bosonic ultracold atomic gases in a harmonic trap. We obtain exact results with direct numerical diagonalization for small number of atoms, which permits us to quantify quantum many-body correlations. The quantum Monte Carlo method is used to calculate energies and density profiles for larger system sizes. We study the system properties for a wide range of interaction parameters. For the extreme values of these parameters, different correlation limits can be identified, where the correlations are either weak or strong. We investigate in detail how the correlation evolve between the limits. For balanced mixtures in the number of atoms in each species, the transition between the different limits involves sophisticated changes in the one- and two-body correlations. Particularly, we quantify the entanglement between the two components by means of the von Neumann entropy. We show that the limits equally exist when the number of atoms is increased, for balanced mixtures. Also, the changes in the correlations along the transitions among these limits are qualitatively similar. We also show that, for imbalanced mixtures, the same limits with similar transitions exist. Finally, for strongly imbalanced systems, only two limits survive, i.e., a miscible limit and a phase-separated one, resembling those expected with a mean-field approach.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Spin-polarized hydrogen adsorbed on the surface of superfluid 4He

The experimental realization of a thin layer of spin-polarized hydrogen adsorbed on top of the surface of superfluid 4He provides one of the best examples of a stable nearly two-dimensional quantum Bose gas. We report a theoretical study of this system using quantum Monte Carlo methods in the limit of zero temperature. Using the full Hamiltonian of the system, composed of a superfluid 4He slab and the adsorbed hydrogen layer, we calculate the main properties of its ground state using accurate models for the pair interatomic potentials. Comparing the results for the layer with the ones obtained for a strictly two-dimensional (2D) setup, we analyze the departure from the 2D character when the density increases. Only when the coverage is rather small the use of a purely 2D model is justified. The condensate fraction of the layer is significantly larger than in 2D at the same surface density, being as large as $60\%$ at the largest coverage studied.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Quantum Monte Carlo study of spin-polarized deuterium

The ground state properties of spin-polarized deuterium (D$\downarrow$) at zero temperature are obtained by means of the diffusion Monte Carlo calculations within the fixed-node approximation. Three D$\downarrow$ species have been investigated (D$\downarrow_1$, D$\downarrow_2$, D$\downarrow_3$), corresponding respectively to one, two and three equally occupied nuclear spin states. Influence of the backflow correlations on the ground state energy of the systems is explored. The equilibrium densities for D$\downarrow_2$ and D$\downarrow_3$ liquids are obtained and compared with ones obtained in previous approximate prediction. The density and the pressure at which the gas-liquid phase transition occurs at $T$=0 is obtained for D$\downarrow_1$.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Sharp crossover from composite fermionization to phase separation in mesoscopic mixtures of ultracold bosons

We show that a two-component mixture of a few repulsively interacting ultracold atoms in a one-dimensional trap possesses very different quantum regimes and that the crossover between them can be induced by tuning the interactions in one of the species. In the composite fermionization regime, where the interactions between both components are large, none of the species show large occupation of any natural orbital. Our results show that by increasing the interaction in one of the species, one can reach the phase-separated regime. In this regime, the weakly interacting component stays at the center of the trap and becomes almost fully phase coherent, while the strongly interacting component is displaced to the edges of the trap. The crossover is sharp, as observed in the in the energy and the in the largest occupation of a natural orbital of the weakly interacting species. Such a transition is a purely mesoscopic effect which disappears for large atom numbers.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Dynamic structure function of a cold Fermi gas at unitarity

We present a theoretical study of the dynamic structure function of a resonantly interacting two-component Fermi gas at zero temperature. Our approach is based on dynamic many-body theory able to describe excitations in strongly correlated Fermi systems. The fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo method is used to produce the ground-state correlation functions which are used as an input for the excitation theory. Our approach reproduces recent Bragg scattering data in both the density and the spin channel. In the BCS regime, the response is close to that of the ideal Fermi gas. On the BEC side, the Bose peak associated with the formation of dimers dominates the density channel of the dynamic response. When the fraction of dimers is large our theory departs from the experimental data, mainly in the spin channel.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Second layer of H2 and D2 adsorbed on graphene

We report diffusion Monte Carlo calculations on the phase diagrams of para-H2 and ortho-D2 adsorbed on top of a first layer of the same substances on graphene. We found that the ground state of the second layer is a triangular incommensurate solid for both isotopes. The densities for promotion to a second layer and for the onset of a two-dimensional solid on that second layer compare favorably to available experimental data in both cases.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Ground state properties and excitation spectrum of a two dimensional gas of bosonic dipoles

We present a quantum Monte Carlo study of two-dimensional dipolar Bose gases in the limit of zero temperature. The analysis is mainly focused on the anisotropy effects induced in the homogeneous gas when the polarization angle with respect to the plane is changed. We restrict our study to the regime where the dipolar interaction is strictly repulsive, although the strength of the pair repulsion depends on the vector interparticle distance. Our results show that the effect of the anisotropy in the energy per particle scales with the gas parameter at low densities as expected, and that this scaling is preserved for all polarization angles even at the largest densities considered here. We also evaluate the excitation spectrum of the dipolar Bose gas in the context of the Feynman approximation and compare the results obtained with the Bogoliubov ones. As expected, we find that these two approximations agree at very low densities, while they start to deviate from each other as the density increases. For the largest densities studied, we observe a significant influence of the anisotropy of the dipole-dipole interaction in the excitation spectrum.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

4He adsorbed outside a single carbon nanotube

The phase diagrams of $^4$He adsorbed on the external surfaces of single armchair carbon nanotubes with radii in the range 3.42 -- 10.85 Å\ are calculated using the diffusion Monte Carlo method. For nanotubes narrower than a (10,10) one, the ground state is an incommensurate solid similar to the one found for H$_2$ on the same substrates. For wider nanotubes, the phase with the minimum energy per particle is a liquid layer. Curved $\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 3$ registered solids similar to the ones found on graphene and graphite were unstable for all the tubes considered.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Stability of resonantly interacting heavy-light Fermi mixtures

We investigate a two-component mixture of resonantly interacting Fermi gases as a function of the ratio κof the heavy to the light mass of the two species. The diffusion Monte Carlo method is used to calculate the ground-state energy and the pair correlation function starting from two different guiding wave functions, which describe respectively the superfluid and the normal state of the gas. Results show that the mixture is stable and superfluid for mass ratios smaller than the critical value κ_c = 13 +/- 1. For larger values of κsimulations utilizing the wave function of the normal state are unstable towards cluster formation. The relevant cluster states driving the instability appear to be formed by one light particle and two or more heavy particles within distances on the order of the range of the interatomic potential. The small overlap between the wave function of the trimer bound state and the guiding wave function used to describe the superfluid state produces the unphysical stability of the superfluid gas above κ_c.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Superfluidity of metastable bulk glass para-hydrogen at low temperature

Molecular para-hydrogen has been proposed theoretically as a possible candidate for superfluidity, but the eventual superfluid transition is hindered by its crystallization. In this work, we study a metastable non crystalline phase of bulk p-H2 by means of the Path Integral Monte Carlo method in order to investigate at which temperature this system can support superfluidity. By choosing accurately the initial configuration and using a non commensurate simulation box, we have been able to frustrate the formation of the crystal in the simulated system and to calculate the temperature dependence of the one-body density matrix and of the superfluid fraction. We observe a transition to a superfluid phase at temperatures around 1 K. The limit of zero temperature is also studied using the diffusion Monte Carlo method. Results for the energy, condensate fraction, and structure of the metastable liquid phase at T=0 are reported and compared with the ones obtained for the stable solid phase.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2012

Zero-temperature phase diagram of Yukawa bosons

We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of bosons interacting via screened Coulomb (Yukawa) potential by means of the diffusion Monte Carlo method. The Yukawa potential is used as a model interaction in the neutron matter, dusty plasmas and charged colloids. As shown by D. S. Petrov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 130407 (2007)], interactions between weakly bound molecules of heavy and light fermionic atoms are described by an effective Yukawa potential with a strength related to the heavy-light mass ratio M/m which might lead to crystallization in a two-dimensional geometry if the mass ratio of heavy-light fermions exceeds a certain critical value. In the present work we do a thorough study of the quantum three-dimensional Yukawa system. For strong interactions (equivalently, large mass ratios) the system experiences several phase transitions as the density is increased, passing from gas to solid and to gas phase again. Weakly interacting Yukawa particles do not crystallize at any density. We find the minimal interaction strength at which the crystallization happens. In terms of the two-component fermionic system, this strength corresponds to a heavy-light mass ratio of M/m ~ 180, so that it is impossible to realize the gas-crystal transition in a conventional bulk system. For the Yukawa model of fermionic mixtures we also analyze the possibility of building molecular systems with very large effective mass ratios by confining the heavy component to a sufficiently deep optical lattice. We show how the effective mass of the heavy component can be made arbitrarily large by increasing the lattice depth, thus leading to a tunable effective mass ratio that can be used to realize a molecular superlattice.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Zero-temperature phase diagram of the second layer of $^{\bf 4}$He adsorbed on graphene

The phase diagram at zero temperature of $^4$He adsorbed on an helium incommensurate triangular solid on top of a single graphene sheet has been obtained using the diffusion Monte Carlo method. We have found that, in accordance with previous experimental and simulation results for graphite, the ground state of $^4$He on this setup is a liquid that, upon compression, transforms into a triangular solid. To define the stability limits of both liquid and solid phases, we considered not only the adsorption energies of the atoms located on the second layer but the average energy of the atoms in both layers. Our results show that the lower density limit for a stable liquid in the second layer is 0.163 $\pm$ 0.005 Å$^{-2}$ and that the lower limit for the existence of an incommensurate solid on the second layer is 0.186 $\pm$ 0.003 Å$^{-2}$. Both values are in overall agreement with the results of torsional oscillator experiments and heat capacity measurements on graphite. The 4/7 and 7/12 registered solids are found to be metastable with respect to triangular incommensurate arrangements of the same density.

cond-mat.other↗