TY - JOUR
T1 - Migration of bosonic particles across a mott insulator to a superfluid phase interface
AU - Hartmann, Michael J.
AU - Plenio, Martin B.
PY - 2008/2/20
Y1 - 2008/2/20
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=40849112046&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.070602
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.070602
M3 - Article
C2 - 18352536
AN - SCOPUS:40849112046
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 100
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 7
M1 - 070602
ER -