Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 130401 (2003) [4 pages]Commensurate-Incommensurate Transition of Cold Atoms in an Optical LatticeReceived 22 May 2002; published 1 April 2003 An atomic gas subject to a commensurate periodic potential generated by an optical lattice undergoes a superfluid-Mott insulator transition. Confining a strongly interacting gas to one dimension generates an instability where an arbitrary weak potential is sufficient to pin the atoms into the Mott state; here, we derive the corresponding phase diagram. The commensurate pinned state may be detected via its finite excitation gap and the Bragg peaks in the static structure factor. © 2003 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.130401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.130401
PACS:
03.75.Kk, 05.30.Jp, 32.80.Pj
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