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L. Pollet

Publications and source records attributed to L. Pollet.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Phase diagram of the disordered Bose-Hubbard model

We establish the phase diagram of the disordered three-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model at unity filling, which has been controversial for many years. The theorem of inclusions, proven in Ref. [1], states that the Bose glass phase always intervenes between the Mott insulating and superfluid phases. Here, we note that assumptions on which the theorem is based exclude phase transitions between gapped (Mott insulator) and gapless phases (Bose glass). The apparent paradox is resolved through a unique mechanism: such transitions have to be of the Griffiths type when the vanishing of the gap at the critical point is due to a zero concentration of rare regions where extreme fluctuations of disorder mimic a {\it regular} gapless system. An exactly solvable random transverse field Ising model in one dimension is used to illustrate the point. A highly non-trivial overall shape of the phase diagram is revealed with the worm algorithm. The phase diagram features a long superfluid finger at strong disorder and on-site interaction. Moreover, bosonic superfluidity is extremely robust against disorder in a broad range of interaction parameters; it persists in random potentials nearly 50 (!) times larger than the particle half-bandwidth. Finally, we comment on the feasibility of obtaining this phase diagram in cold-atom experiments, which work with trapped systems at finite temperature.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Superclimb of Dislocations and the Anomalous Isochoric Compressibility of Solid He4

In the experiment on superfluid transport in solid He4 [PRL {\bf 100}, 235301 (2008)], Ray and Hallock observed an {\it anomalously large isochoric compressibility}: the supersolid samples demonstrated a significant and apparently spatially uniform response of density and pressure to chemical potential, applied locally through Vycor "electrodes". We propose that the effect is due to {\it superclimb} : edge dislocations can climb because of mass transport along superfluid cores. We corroborate the scenario by {\it ab initio} simulations of an edge dislocation in solid He4 at $T=0.5K$. We argue that at low temperature the effect must be suppressed due to a crossover to the smooth dislocation.

cond-mat.other↗

Supersolid phase with cold polar molecules on a triangular lattice

We study a system of heteronuclear molecules on a triangular lattice and analyze the potential of this system for the experimental realization of a supersolid phase. The ground state phase diagram contains superfluid, solid and supersolid phases. At finite temperatures and strong interactions there is an additional emulsion region, in contrast to similar models with short-range interactions. We derive the maximal critical temperature $T_c$ and the corresponding entropy $S/N = 0.04(1)$ for supersolidity and find feasible experimental conditions for its realization.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Suppression of the critical temperature for superfluidity near the Mott transition: validating a quantum simulator

Ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices have proven to be a controllable, tunable and clean implementation of strongly interacting quantum many-body systems. An essential prospect for such quantum simulators is their ability to map out the phase diagram of fundamental many-body model Hamiltonians. However, the results need to be validated first for representative benchmark problems via state-of-the-art numerical methods of quantum many-body theory. Here we present the first ab-initio comparison between experiments and quantum Monte Carlo simulations for strongly interacting Bose gases on a lattice for large systems (up to N = 3e5 particles). The comparison has enabled us to perform thermometry for the interacting quantum gas and to experimentally determine the finite temperature phase diagram for bosonic superfluids in an optical lattice. Our results reveal a downshift of the critical temperature as the transition to the Mott insulator is approached.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Absence of a Direct Superfluid to Mott Insulator Transition in Disordered Bose Systems

We prove the absence of a direct quantum phase transition between a superfluid and a Mott insulator in a bosonic system with generic, bounded disorder. We also prove compressibility of the system on the superfluid--insulator critical line and in its neighborhood. These conclusions follow from a general {\it theorem of inclusions} which states that for any transition in a disordered system one can always find rare regions of the competing phase on either side of the transition line. Quantum Monte Carlo simulations for the disordered Bose-Hubbard model show an even stronger result, important for the nature of the Mott insulator to Bose glass phase transition: The critical disorder bound, $Δ_c$, corresponding to the onset of disorder-induced superfluidity, satisfies the relation $Δ_c > E_{\rm g/2}$, with $E_{\rm g/2}$ the half-width of the Mott gap in the pure system.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Phase diagram of 4He adsorbed on graphite

We present results of a theoretical study of 4He films adsorbed on graphite, based on the continuous space worm algorithm. In the first layer, we find a domain-wall phase and a (7/16) registered structure between the commensurate (1/3) and the incommensurate solid phases. For the second layer, we find only superfluid and incommensurate solid phases. The commensurate phase found in previous simulation work is only observed if first layer particles are kept fixed; it disappears upon explicitly including their zero-point fluctuations. No evidence of any "supersolid" phase is found.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Expansion of a quantum gas released from an optical lattice

We analyze the interference pattern produced by ultracold atoms released from an optical lattice. Such interference patterns are commonly interpreted as the momentum distributions of the trapped quantum gas. We show that for finite time-of-flights the resulting density distribution can, however, be significantly altered, similar to a near-field diffraction regime in optics. We illustrate our findings with a simple model and realistic quantum Monte Carlo simulations for bosonic atoms, and compare the latter to experiments.

cond-mat.other↗

Binding of a 3He impurity to a screw dislocation in solid 4He

Using first-principle simulations for the probability density of finding a 3He atom in the vicinity of the screw dislocation in solid 4He, we determine the binding energy to the dislocation nucleus E_B = 0.8 \pm 0.1 K and the density of localized states at larger distances. The specific heat due to 3He features a peak similar to the one observed in recent experiments, and our model can also account for the observed increase in shear modulus at low temperature. We further discuss the role of 3He in the picture of superfluid defects.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Local stress and superfluid properties of solid Helium-4

More than half a century ago Penrose asked: are the superfluid and solid state of matter mutually exclusive or do there exist "supersolid" materials where the atoms form a regular lattice and simultaneously flow without friction? Recent experiments provide evidence that supersolid behavior indeed exists in Helium-4 -- the most quantum material known in Nature. In this paper we show that large local strain in the vicinity of crystalline defects is the origin of supersolidity in Helium-4. Although ideal crystals of Helium-4 are not supersolid, the gap for vacancy creation closes when applying a moderate stress. While a homogeneous system simply becomes unstable at this point, the stressed core of crystalline defects (dislocations and grain boundaries) undergoes a radical transformation and can become superfluid.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

The ALPS project release 1.3: open source software for strongly correlated systems

We present release 1.3 of the ALPS (Algorithms and Libraries for Physics Simulations) project, an international open source software project to develop libraries and application programs for the simulation of strongly correlated quantum lattice models such as quantum magnets, lattice bosons, and strongly correlated fermion systems. Development is centered on common XML and binary data formats, on libraries to simplify and speed up code development, and on full-featured simulation programs. The programs enable non-experts to start carrying out numerical simulations by providing basic implementations of the important algorithms for quantum lattice models: classical and quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) using non-local updates, extended ensemble simulations, exact and full diagonalization (ED), as well as the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). Changes in the new release include a DMRG program for interacting models, support for translation symmetries in the diagonalization programs, the ability to define custom measurement operators, and support for inhomogeneous systems, such as lattice models with traps. The software is available from our web server at http://alps.comp-phys.org/ .

cond-mat.str-el↗

Boson-Fermion pairing in Bose-Fermi mixtures on 1D optical lattices

Boson-fermion pairing is considered in a discrete environment of bosons and fully spin-polarized fermions, coupled via an attractive Bose-Fermi Hubbard Hamiltonian in one dimension. The results of the T-matrix approximation for particles of equal mass and at double half filling are compared with the results of exact diagonalization and with Quantum Monte Carlo results. Satisfactory agreement for most quantities is found. The appearance of a stable, weak-coupling pairing mode is also confirmed.

cond-mat.other↗

Superfluidity of Grain Boundaries in Solid Helium-4

By large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations we show that grain boundaries in Helium-4 crystals are generically superfluid at low temperature, with a transition temperature of the order of ~0.5K at the melting pressure; insulating grain boundaries are found only for special orientations of the grains. We also find that close vicinity to the melting line is not a necessary condition for superfluid grain boundaries, and a grain boundary in direct contact with the superfluid liquid at the melting curve is found to be mechanically stable and the grain boundary superfluidity observed by Sasaki et al. [Science 313, 1098 (2006)] is not just a crack filled with superfluid.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Luttinger Liquid in the Core of Screw Dislocation in Helium-4

On the basis of first-principle Monte Carlo simulations we find that the screw dislocation along the hexagonal axis of an hcp He4 crystal features a superfluid core. This is the first example of a regular quasi-one-dimensional supersolid, and one of the cleanest cases of a regular Luttinger-liquid system. In contrast, the same type of screw dislocation in solid Hydrogen is insulating.

cond-mat.other↗

Quantum Monte Carlo study of a one-dimensional phase-fluctuating condensate

We study numerically the low temperature behavior of a one-dimensional Bose gas trapped in an optical lattice. For a sufficient number of particles and weak repulsive interactions, we find a clear regime of temperatures where density fluctuations are negligible but phase fluctuations are considerable, i.e., a quasicondensate. In the weakly interacting limit, our results are in very good agreement with those obtained using a mean-field approximation. In coupling regimes beyond the validity of mean-field approaches, a phase-fluctuating condensate also appears, but the phase-correlation properties are qualitatively different. It is shown that quantum depletion plays an important role.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Mott insulators and correlated superfluids in ultracold Bose-Fermi mixtures

We study the effects of interaction between bosons and fermions in a Bose-Fermi mixtures loaded in an optical lattice. We concentrate on the destruction of a bosonic Mott phase driven by repulsive interaction between bosons and fermions. Once the Mott phase is destroyed, the system enters a superfluid phase where the movements of bosons and fermions are correlated. We show that this phase has simultaneously correlations reminiscent of a conventional superfluid and of a pseudo-spin density wave order.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Survival of parity effects in superconducting grains at finite temperature

We study the thermodynamics of a small, isolated superconducting grain using a recently developed quantum Monte Carlo method. This method allows us to simulate grains at any finite temperature and with any level spacing in an exact way. We focus on the pairing energy, pairing gap, condensation energy, heat capacity and spin susceptibility to describe the grain. We discuss the interplay between finite size (mesoscopic system), pairing correlations and temperature in full detail.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Consequences of the Pauli exclusion principle for the Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms and excitons

The bosonic atoms used in present day experiments on Bose-Einstein condensation are made up of fermionic electrons and nucleons. In this Letter we demonstrate how the Pauli exclusion principle for these constituents puts an upper limit on the Bose-Einstein-condensed fraction. Detailed numerical results are presented for hydrogen atoms in a cubic volume and for excitons in semiconductors and semiconductor bilayer systems. The resulting condensate depletion scales differently from what one expects for bosons with a repulsive hard-core interaction. At high densities, Pauli exclusion results in significantly more condensate depletion. These results also shed a new light on the low condensed fraction in liquid helium II.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Optimal Monte Carlo Updating

Based on Peskun's theorem it is shown that optimal transition matrices in Markov chain Monte Carlo should have zero diagonal elements except for the diagonal element corresponding to the largest weight. We will compare the statistical efficiency of this sampler to existing algorithms, such as heat-bath updating and the Metropolis algorithm. We provide numerical results for the Potts model as an application in classical physics. As an application in quantum physics we consider the spin 3/2 XY model and the Bose-Hubbard model which have been simulated by the directed loop algorithm in the stochastic series expansion framework.

cond-mat.other↗