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Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 117203 (2002) [4 pages]

Mott Domains of Bosons Confined on Optical Lattices

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G. G. Batrouni and V. Rousseau
Institut Non-Linéaire de Nice, Université de Nice–Sophia Antipolis, 1361 route des Lucioles, 06560 Valbonne, France

R. T. Scalettar
Physics Department, University of California, Davis, California 95616

M. Rigol and A. Muramatsu
Institut für Theoretische Physik III, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany

P. J. H. Denteneer
Lorentz Institute, University of Leiden, P.O. Box 9506, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

M. Troyer
Theoretische Physik, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland

Received 5 March 2002; published 26 August 2002

In the absence of a confining potential, the boson-Hubbard model exhibits a superfluid to Mott insulator quantum phase transition at commensurate fillings and strong coupling. We use quantum Monte Carlo simulations to study the ground state of the one-dimensional bosonic Hubbard model in a trap. Some, but not all, aspects of the Mott insulating phase persist. Mott behavior occurs for a continuous range of incommensurate fillings, very different from the unconfined case, and the establishment of the Mott phase does not proceed via a traditional quantum phase transition. These results have important implications for interpreting experiments on ultracold atoms on optical lattices.

© 2002 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.117203
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.117203
PACS:
75.10.Nr, 05.30.Jp, 67.40.Yv, 74.60.Ge
 
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