Strong-coupling expansion for the two-species Bose-Hubbard model

To analyze the ground-state phase diagram of Bose-Bose mixtures loaded into $d$-dimensional hypercubic optical lattices, we perform a strong-coupling power-series expansion in the kinetic energy term (plus a scaling analysis) for the two-species Bose-Hubbard model with onsite boson-boson interactions. We consider both repulsive and attractive interspecies interaction, and obtain an analytical expression for the phase boundary between the incompressible Mott insulator and the compressible superfluid phase up to third order in the hoppings. In particular, we find a re-entrant quantum phase transition from paired superfluid (superfluidity of composite bosons, i.e. Bose-Bose pairs) to Mott insulator and again to a paired superfluid in all one, two and three dimensions, when the interspecies interaction is sufficiently large and attractive. We hope that some of our results could be tested with ultracold atomic systems.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, and 2 tables (published version

Stripe-ordered superfluid and supersolid phases in attractive Hofstadter-Hubbard model

We use microscopic Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism to explore the ground-state phase diagram of the single-band attractive Hofstadter-Hubbard model on a square lattice. We show that the interplay between the Hofstadter butterfly and superfluidity breaks spatial symmetry, and gives rise to stripe-ordered superfluid and supersolid phases in large parameter spaces. We also discuss the effects of a trapping potential and comment on the viability of observing stripe-ordered phases with cold Fermi gases.Comment: 4+ pages with 3 figures; to appear in PRA as R

Vortex line in spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gases

It has recently been shown that the spin-orbit coupling gives rise to topologically-nontrivial and thermodynamically-stable gapless superfluid phases when the pseudo-spin populations of an atomic Fermi gas is imbalanced, with the possibility of featuring Majorana zero-energy quasiparticles. In this paper, we consider a Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling, and use the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism to analyze a single vortex line along a finite cylinder with a periodic boundary condition. We show that the signatures for the appearance of core- and edge-bound states can be directly found in the density of single-particle states and particle-current density. In particular, we find that the pseudo-spin components counterflow near the edge of the cylinder, the strength of which increases with increasing spin-orbit coupling.Comment: 7 pages with 6 figures; minor change

Trapped Fermi gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling in two dimensions

We use the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism to analyze harmonically trapped Fermi gases with Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling in two dimensions. We consider both population-balanced and -imbalanced Fermi gases throughout the BCS-BEC evolution, and study the effects of spin-orbit coupling on the spontaneously induced countercirculating mass currents and the associated intrinsic angular momentum. In particular, we find that even a small spin-orbit coupling destabilizes Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-type spatially modulated superfluid phases as well as the phase-separated states against the polarized superfluid phase. We also show that the continuum of quasiparticle and quasihole excitation spectrum can be connected by zero, one or two discrete branches of interface modes, depending on the number of interfaces between a topologically trivial phase (e.g. locally unpolarized/low-polarized superfluid or spin-polarized normal) and a topologically nontrivial one (e.g. locally high-polarized superfluid) that may be present in a trapped system.Comment: 7 pages with 4 figure

Attractive Hofstadter-Hubbard model with imbalanced chemical and vector potentials

We study the interplay between the Hofstadter butterfly, strong interactions and Zeeman field within the mean-field Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory in real space, and explore the ground states of the attractive single-band Hofstadter-Hubbard Hamiltonian on a square lattice, including the exotic possibility of imbalanced vector potentials. We find that the cooperation between the vector potential and superfluid order breaks the spatial symmetry of the system, and flourish stripe-ordered Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-like superfluid and supersolid phases that can be distinguished and characterized according to their coexisting pair-density (PDW), charge-density (CDW) and spin-density (SDW) wave orders. We also discuss confined systems and comment on the likelihood of observing such stripe-ordered phases by loading neutral atomic Fermi gases on laser-induced optical lattices under laser-generated artificial gauge fields.Comment: 12 pages and 13 figures; longer version of arXiv:1406.689

Isothermal sweep theorems for ultra-cold quantum gases in a canonical ensemble

After deriving the isothermal Hellmann-Feynman theorem (IHFT) that is suitable for mixed states in a canonical ensemble, we use this theorem to obtain the isothermal magnetic-field sweep theorems for the free, average and trapping energies, and for the entropy, specific heat, pressure and atomic compressibility of strongly-correlated ultra-cold quantum gases. In particular, we apply the sweep theorems to two-component Fermi gases in the weakly-interacting BCS and BEC limits, showing that the temperature dependence of the contact parameter can be determined by the variation of either the entropy or specific heat with respect to the scattering length. We also use the IHFT to obtain the Virial theorem in a canonical ensemble, and discuss its implications for quantum gases.Comment: 6 pages (added more discussion