Orbital selective crossover and Mott transitions in an asymmetric Hubbard model of cold atoms in optical lattices

We study the asymmetric Hubbard model at half-filling as a generic model to describe the physics of two species of repulsively interacting fermionic cold atoms in optical lattices. We use Dynamical Mean Field Theory to obtain the paramagnetic phase diagram of the model as function of temperature, interaction strength and hopping asymmetry. A Mott transition with a region of two coexistent solutions is found for all nonzero values of the hopping asymmetry. At low temperatures the metallic phase is a heavy Fermi-liquid, qualitatively analogous to the Fermi liquid state of the symmetric Hubbard model. Above a coherence temperature, an orbital-selective crossover takes place, wherein one fermionic species effectively localizes, and the resulting bad metallic state resembles the non-Fermi liquid state of the Falicov-Kimball model. We compute observables relevant to cold atom systems such as the double occupation, the specific heat and entropy and characterize their behavior in the different phases

The Finite Temperature Mott Transition in the Hubbard Model in Infinite Dimensions

We study the second order finite temperature Mott transition point in the fully frustrated Hubbard model at half filling, within Dynamical Mean Field Theory. Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations we show the existence of a finite temperature second order critical point by explicitly demonstrating the existence of a divergent susceptibility as well as by finding coexistence in the low temperature phase. We determine the location of the finite temperature Mott critical point in the (U,T) plane. Our study verifies and quantifies a scenario for the Mott transition proposed in earlier studies (Reviews of Modern Physics 68, 13, 1996) of this problem.Comment: 4 RevTex pages, uses epsf, 2 figure

Weak coupling study of decoherence of a qubit in disordered magnetic environments

We study the decoherence of a qubit weakly coupled to frustrated spin baths. We focus on spin-baths described by the classical Ising spin glass and the quantum random transverse Ising model which are known to have complex thermodynamic phase diagrams as a function of an external magnetic field and temperature. Using a combination of numerical and analytical methods, we show that for baths initally in thermal equilibrium, the resulting decoherence is highly sensitive to the nature of the coupling to the environment and is qualitatively different in different parts of the phase diagram. We find an unexpected strong non-Markovian decay of the coherence when the random transverse Ising model bath is prepared in an initial state characterized by a finite temperature paramagnet. This is contrary to the usual case of exponential decay (Markovian) expected for spin baths in finite temperature paramagnetic phases, thereby illustrating the importance of the underlying non-trivial dynamics of interacting quantum spinbaths.Comment: 12 pages, 18 figure

Quantum Monte Carlo method for models of molecular nanodevices

We introduce a quantum Monte Carlo technique to calculate exactly at finite temperatures the Green function of a fermionic quantum impurity coupled to a bosonic field. While the algorithm is general, we focus on the single impurity Anderson model coupled to a Holstein phonon as a schematic model for a molecular transistor. We compute the density of states at the impurity in a large range of parameters, to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the method. We also obtain the conductance of the impurity model and analyze different regimes. The results show that even in the case when the effective attractive phonon interaction is larger than the Coulomb repulsion, a Kondo-like conductance behavior might be observed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Phase diagram of the asymmetric Hubbard model and an entropic chromatographic method for cooling cold fermions in optical lattices

We study the phase diagram of the asymmetric Hubbard model (AHM), which is characterized by different values of the hopping for the two spin projections of a fermion or equivalently, two different orbitals. This model is expected to provide a good description of a mass-imbalanced cold fermionic mixture in a 3D optical lattice. We use the dynamical mean field theory to study various physical properties of this system. In particular, we show how orbital-selective physics, observed in multi-orbital strongly correlated electron systems, can be realized in such a simple model. We find that the density distribution is a good probe of this orbital selective crossover from a Fermi liquid to a non-Fermi liquid state. Below an ordering temperature $T_o$, which is a function of both the interaction and hopping asymmetry, the system exhibits staggered long range orbital order. Apart from the special case of the symmetric limit, i.e., Hubbard model, where there is no hopping asymmetry, this orbital order is accompanied by a true charge density wave order for all values of the hopping asymmetry. We calculate the order parameters and various physical quantities including the thermodynamics in both the ordered and disordered phases. We find that the formation of the charge density wave is signaled by an abrupt increase in the sublattice double occupancies. Finally, we propose a new method, entropic chromatography, for cooling fermionic atoms in optical lattices, by exploiting the properties of the AHM. To establish this cooling strategy on a firmer basis, we also discuss the variations in temperature induced by the adiabatic tuning of interactions and hopping parameters.Comment: 16 pages, 19 fig