The confining trailing string

We extend the holographic trailing string picture of a heavy quark to the case of a bulk geometry dual to a confining gauge theory. We compute the classical trailing confining string solution for a static as well as a uniformly moving quark. The trailing string is infinitely extended and approaches a confining horizon, situated at a critical value of the radial coordinate, along one of the space-time directions, breaking boundary rotational invariance. We compute the equations for the fluctuations around the classical solutions, which are used to obtain boundary force correlators controlling the Langevin dynamics of the quark. The imaginary part of the correlators has a non-trivial low-frequency limit, which gives rise to a viscous friction coefficient induced by the confining vacuum. The vacuum correlators are used to define finite-temperature dressed Langevin correlators with an appropriate high-frequency behavior.Comment: 63 pages plus appendices, 19 figures; version accepted for publication in JHE

Zero-temperature phase diagram of Yukawa bosons

We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of bosons interacting via screened Coulomb (Yukawa) potential by means of the diffusion Monte Carlo method. The Yukawa potential is used as a model interaction in the neutron matter, dusty plasmas and charged colloids. As shown by D. S. Petrov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 130407 (2007)], interactions between weakly bound molecules of heavy and light fermionic atoms are described by an effective Yukawa potential with a strength related to the heavy-light mass ratio M/m which might lead to crystallization in a two-dimensional geometry if the mass ratio of heavy-light fermions exceeds a certain critical value. In the present work we do a thorough study of the quantum three-dimensional Yukawa system. For strong interactions (equivalently, large mass ratios) the system experiences several phase transitions as the density is increased, passing from gas to solid and to gas phase again. Weakly interacting Yukawa particles do not crystallize at any density. We find the minimal interaction strength at which the crystallization happens. In terms of the two-component fermionic system, this strength corresponds to a heavy-light mass ratio of M/m ~ 180, so that it is impossible to realize the gas-crystal transition in a conventional bulk system. For the Yukawa model of fermionic mixtures we also analyze the possibility of building molecular systems with very large effective mass ratios by confining the heavy component to a sufficiently deep optical lattice. We show how the effective mass of the heavy component can be made arbitrarily large by increasing the lattice depth, thus leading to a tunable effective mass ratio that can be used to realize a molecular superlattice.Comment: added figure with finite-size dependence of the energy; comments and references added; title change

Low-dimensional weakly interacting Bose gases: non-universal equations of state

The zero-temperature equation of state is analyzed in low-dimensional bosonic systems. In the dilute regime the equation of state is universal in terms of the gas parameter, i.e. it is the same for different potentials with the same value of the s-wave scattering length. Series expansions of the universal equation of state are reported for one- and two- dimensional systems. We propose to use the concept of energy-dependent s-wave scattering length for obtaining estimations of non-universal terms in the energy expansion. We test this approach by making a comparison to exactly solvable one-dimensional problems and find that the generated terms have the correct structure. The applicability to two-dimensional systems is analyzed by comparing with results of Monte Carlo simulations. The prediction for the non-universal behavior is qualitatively correct and the densities, at which the deviations from the universal equation of state become visible, are estimated properly. Finally, the possibility of observing the non-universal terms in experiments with trapped gases is also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Energy and Structure of Hard-Sphere Bose Gases in three and two dimensions

The energy and structure of dilute gases of hard spheres in three dimensions is discussed, together with some aspects of the corresponding 2D systems. A variational approach in the framework of the Hypernetted Chain Equations (HNC) is used starting from a Jastrow wavefunction that is optimized to produce the best two--body correlation factor with the appropriate long range. Relevant quantities describing static properties of the system are studied as a function of the gas parameter $x=\rho a^d$ where $\rho$, $a$ and $d$ are the density, $s$--wave scattering length of the potential and dimensionality of the space, respectively. The occurrence of a maximum in the radial distribution function and in the momentum distribution is a natural effect of the correlations when $x$ increases. Some aspects of the asymptotic behavior of the functions characterizing the structure of the systems are also investigated.Comment: Proceedings of the QFS2004 conference in Trento. To appear in JLT

Ground-State Properties of a One-Dimensional System of Hard Rods

A quantum Monte Carlo simulation of a system of hard rods in one dimension is presented and discussed. The calculation is exact since the analytical form of the wavefunction is known, and is in excellent agreement with predictions obtained from asymptotic expansions valid at large distances. The analysis of the static structure factor and the pair distribution function indicates that a solid-like and a gas-like phases exist at high and low densities, respectively. The one-body density matrix decays following a power-law at large distances and produces a divergence in the low density momentum distribution at k=0 which can be identified as a quasi-condensate.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Single-particle vs. pair superfluidity in a bilayer system of dipolar bosons

We consider the ground state of a bilayer system of dipolar bosons, where dipoles are oriented by an external field in the direction perpendicular to the parallel planes. Quantum Monte Carlo methods are used to calculate the ground-state energy, the one-body and two-body density matrix, and the superfluid response as a function of the separation between layers. We find that by decreasing the interlayer distance for fixed value of the strength of the dipolar interaction, the system undergoes a quantum phase transition from a single-particle to a pair superfluid. The single-particle superfluid is characterized by a finite value of both the atomic condensate and the super-counterfluid density. The pair superfluid phase is found to be stable against formation of many-body cluster states and features a gap in the spectrum of elementary excitations.Comment: 4 figure

Gapped spectrum in pair-superfluid bosons

We study the ground state of a bilayer system of dipolar bosons with dipoles oriented by an external field perpendicularly to the two parallel planes. By decreasing the interlayer distance, for a fixed value of the strength of the dipolar interaction, the system undergoes a quantum phase transition from an atomic to a pair superfluid. We investigate the excitation spectrum on both sides of this transition by using two microscopic approaches. Quantum Monte Carlo methods are employed to obtain the static structure factors and intermediate scattering functions in imaginary time. The dynamic response is calculated using both the correlated basis functions (CBF) method and the approximate inversion of the Laplace transform of the quantum Monte Carlo imaginary time data. In the atomic phase, both the density and spin excitations are gapless. However, in the pair-superfluid phase a gap opens in the excitation energy of the spin mode. For small separation between layers, the minimal spin excitation energy equals the binding energy of a dimer and is twice the gap value.Postprint (author's final draft

Optical lattices as a tool to study defect-induced superfluidity

We study the superfluid response, the energetic and structural properties of a one-dimensional ultracold Bose gas in an optical lattice of arbitrary strength. We use the Bose-Fermi mapping in the limit of infinitely large repulsive interaction and the diffusion Monte Carlo method in the case of finite interaction. For slightly incommensurate fillings we find a superfluid behavior which is discussed in terms of vacancies and interstitials. It is shown that both the excitation spectrum and static structure factor are different for the cases of microscopic and macroscopic fractions of defects. This system provides a extremely well-controlled model for studying defect-induced superfluidity.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, published versio