Lattice assisted spectroscopy: a generalized scanning tunnelling microscope for ultra-cold atoms

We show that the possibility to address and image single sites of an optical lattice, now an experimental reality, allows to measure the frequency-resolved local particle and hole spectra of a wide variety of one- and two-dimensional systems of lattice-confined strongly correlated ultracold atoms. Combining perturbation theory and time-dependent DMRG, we validate this scheme of lattice-assisted spectroscopy (LAS) on several example systems, such as the 1D superfluid and Mott insulator, with and without a parabolic trap, and finally on edge states of the bosonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. We also highlight extensions of our basic scheme to obtain an even wider variety of interesting and important frequency resolved spectra.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Dynamics of a Mobile Impurity in a Two Leg Bosonic Ladder

We have analyzed the behavior of a mobile quantum impurity in a bath formed by a two-leg bosonic ladder by a combination of field theory (Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid) and numerical (Density Matrix Renormalization Group) techniques. Computing the Green's function of the impurity as a function of time at different momenta, we find a power law decay at zero momentum, which signals the breakdown of any quasi-particle description of the impurity motion. We compute the exponent both for the limits of weak and strong impurity-bath interactions. At small impurity-bath interaction, we find that the impurity experiences the ladder as a single channel one-dimensional bath, but effective coupling is reduced by a factor of $\sqrt 2$, thus the impurity is less mobile in the ladder compared to a one dimensional bath. We compared the numerical results for the exponent at zero momentum with a semi-analytical expression that was initially established for the chain and find excellent agreement without adjustable parameters. We analyze the dependence of the exponent in the transverse hopping in the bath and find surprisingly an increase of the exponent at variance with the naive extrapolation of the single channel regime. We study the momentum dependence of the impurity Green's function and find that, as for the single chain, two different regime of motion exist, one dominated by infrared metatrophy and a more conventional polaronic behavior. We compute the critical momentum between these two regimes and compare with prediction based on the structure factor of the bath. In the polaronic regime we also compute numerically the lifetime of the polaron. Finally we discuss how our results could be measured in cold atomic experiments.Comment: 14 Pages, 13 figure

Competing regimes of motion in 1D mobile impurities

We show that a distinguishable mobile impurity inside a one-dimensional many-body state at zero temperature generally does not behave like a quasiparticle (QP). Instead, both the impurities dynamics as well as the ground state of the bath are fundamentally transformed by a diverging number of zero-energy excitations being generated, leading to what we call infrared-dominated (ID) dynamics. Combining analytics and DMRG numerics we provide a general formula for the power law governing ID dynamics at zero momentum, discuss a threshold beyond which quasiparticle dynamics may occur again, and study the competition between the ID and quasiparticle universality classes at larger impurity momenta.Comment: 4+ pages, 3 figures. Title has been changed in response to editorial comments. Abstract has been reworked. Main text has been significantly restructured and figures reworked. 4+ pages Supplementary Materials have been added, including 3 additional figure

Mobile Impurity in a Two-Leg Bosonic Ladder

We study the dynamics of a mobile impurity in a two-leg bosonic ladder. The impurity moves both along and across the legs and interacts with a bath of interacting bosonic particles present in the ladder. We use both analytical (Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid - TLL) and numerical (Density Matrix Renormalization Group - DMRG) methods to compute the Green's function of the impurity. We find that for a small impurity-bath interaction, the bonding mode of the impurity effectively couples only to the gapless mode of the bath while the anti-bonding mode of the impurity couples to both gapped and gapless mode of the bath. We compute the time dependence of the Green's function of the impurity, for impurity created either in the anti-bonding or bonding mode with a given momentum. The later case leads to a decay as a power-law below a critical momentum and exponential above, while the former case always decays exponentially. We compare the DMRG results with analytical results using the linked cluster expansion and find a good agreement. In addition we use DMRG to extract the lifetime of the quasi-particle, when the Green's function decays exponentially. We also treat the case of an infinite bath-impurity coupling for which both the bonding and antibonding modes are systematically affected. For this case the impurity Green's function in the bonding mode decays as a power-law at zero momentum.The corresponding exponent increases with increasing transverse-tunneling of the impurity. We compare our results with the other impurity problems for which the motion of either the impurity or the bath is limited to a single chain. Finally we comments on the consequences of our findings for experiments with the ultracold gasses.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figure

Matrix Product State applications for the ALPS project

The density-matrix renormalization group method has become a standard computational approach to the low-energy physics as well as dynamics of low-dimensional quantum systems. In this paper, we present a new set of applications, available as part of the ALPS package, that provide an efficient and flexible implementation of these methods based on a matrix-product state (MPS) representation. Our applications implement, within the same framework, algorithms to variationally find the ground state and low-lying excited states as well as simulate the time evolution of arbitrary one-dimensional and two-dimensional models. Implementing the conservation of quantum numbers for generic Abelian symmetries, we achieve performance competitive with the best codes in the community. Example results are provided for (i) a model of itinerant fermions in one dimension and (ii) a model of quantum magnetism.Comment: 11+5 pages, 8 figures, 2 example

Quantum dynamics of a mobile spin impurity

One of the elementary processes in quantum magnetism is the propagation of spin excitations. Here we study the quantum dynamics of a deterministically created spin-impurity atom, as it propagates in a one-dimensional lattice system. We probe the spatial probability distribution of the impurity at different times using single-site-resolved imaging of bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. In the Mott-insulating regime, the quantum-coherent propagation of a magnetic excitation in the Heisenberg model can be observed using a post-selection technique. Extending the study to the superfluid regime of the bath, we quantitatively determine how the bath affects the motion of the impurity, showing evidence of polaronic behaviour. The experimental data agree with theoretical predictions, allowing us to determine the effect of temperature on the impurity motion. Our results provide a new approach to studying quantum magnetism, mobile impurities in quantum fluids and polarons in lattice systems

Quantum dynamics of a single, mobile spin impurity

Quantum magnetism describes the properties of many materials such as transition metal oxides and cuprate superconductors. One of its elementary processes is the propagation of spin excitations. Here we study the quantum dynamics of a deterministically created spin-impurity atom, as it propagates in a one-dimensional lattice system. We probe the full spatial probability distribution of the impurity at different times using single-site-resolved imaging of bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. In the Mott-insulating regime, a post-selection of the data allows to reduce the effect of temperature, giving access to a space- and time-resolved measurement of the quantum-coherent propagation of a magnetic excitation in the Heisenberg model. Extending the study to the bath's superfluid regime, we determine quantitatively how the bath strongly affects the motion of the impurity. The experimental data shows a remarkable agreement with theoretical predictions allowing us to determine the effect of temperature on the coherence and velocity of impurity motion. Our results pave the way for a new approach to study quantum magnetism, mobile impurities in quantum fluids, and polarons in lattice systems

Dimensional crossover and phase transitions in coupled chains : Density matrix renormalization group results

Quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) systems, i.e., three- and two-dimensional (3D/2D) arrays composed of weakly coupled one-dimensional lattices of interacting quantum particles, exhibit rich and fascinating physics. They are studied across various areas of condensed matter and ultracold atomic lattice-gas physics, and are often marked by dimensional crossover as the coupling between one-dimensional systems is increased or temperature decreased, i.e., the Q1D system goes from appearing largely 1D to largely 3D. Phase transitions occurring along the crossover can strongly enhance this effect. Understanding these crossovers and associated phase transitions can be challenging due to the very different elementary excitations of 1D systems compared to higher-dimensional ones. In the present work, we combine numerical matrix product state (MPS) methods with mean-field (MF) theory to study paradigmatic cases of dimensional crossovers and the associated phase transitions in systems of both hard-core and soft-core lattice bosons, with relevance to both condensed matter physics and ultracold atomic gases. We show that the superfluid-to-insulator transition is a first order one, as opposed to the isotropic cases, and calculate transition temperatures for the superfluid states, finding excellent agreement with analytical theory. At the same time, our MPS + MF approach keeps functioning well where the current analytical framework cannot be applied. We further confirm the qualitative and quantitative reliability of our approach by comparison to exact quantum Monte Carlo calculations for the full 3D arrays