Parametric excitation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a 1D optical lattice

We study the response of a Bose-Einstein condensate to a periodic modulation of the depth of an optical lattice. Using Gross-Pitaevskii theory, we show that a modulation at frequency Omega drives the parametric excitation of Bogoliubov modes with frequency Omega/2. The ensuing nonlinear dynamics leads to a rapid broadening of the momentum distribution and a consequent large increase of the condensate size after free expansion. We show that this process does not require the presence of a large condensate depletion. Our results reproduce the main features of the spectrum measured in the superfluid phase by Stoeferle et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 130403 (2004).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, more results added, to appear in PRA Rapid Communication

QCD sum rule analysis of the field strength correlator

The gauge invariant two-point correlator for the gluon field strength tensor is analysed by means of the QCD sum rule method. To this end, we make use of a relation of this correlator to a two-point function for a quark-gluon hybrid in the limit of the quark mass going to infinity. From the sum rules a relation between the gluon correlation length and the gluon condensate is obtained. We briefly compare our results to recent determinations of the field strength correlator on the lattice.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur

Dependence of the BEC transition temperature on interaction strength: a perturbative analysis

We compute the critical temperature T_c of a weakly interacting uniform Bose gas in the canonical ensemble, extending the criterion of condensation provided by the counting statistics for the uniform ideal gas. Using ordinary perturbation theory, we find in first order $(T_c-T_c^0)/T_c^0 = -0.93 a\rho^{1/3}$, where T_c^0 is the transition temperature of the corresponding ideal Bose gas, a is the scattering length, and $\rho$ is the particle number density.Comment: 14 pages (RevTeX

The Structure of the Vortex Liquid at the Surface of a Layered Superconductor

A density-functional approach is used to calculate the inhomogeneous vortex density distribution in the flux liquid phase at the planar surface of a layered superconductor, where the external magnetic field is perpendicular to the superconducting layers and parallel to the surface. The interactions with image vortices are treated within a mean field approximation as a functional of the vortex density. Near the freezing transition strong vortex density fluctuations are found to persist far into the bulk liquid. We also calculate the height of the Bean-Livingston surface barrier.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX, 2 figure

Observation of plaquette fluctuations in the spin-1/2 honeycomb lattice

Quantum spin liquids are materials that feature quantum entangled spin correlations and avoid magnetic long-range order at T = 0 K. Particularly interesting are two-dimensional honeycomb spin lattices where a plethora of exotic quantum spin liquids have been predicted. Here, we experimentally study an effective S=1/2 Heisenberg honeycomb lattice with competing nearest and next-nearest neighbor interactions. We demonstrate that YbBr$_3$ avoids order down to at least T=100 mK and features a dynamic spin-spin correlation function with broad continuum scattering typical of quantum spin liquids near a quantum critical point. The continuum in the spin spectrum is consistent with plaquette type fluctuations predicted by theory. Our study is the experimental demonstration that strong quantum fluctuations can exist on the honeycomb lattice even in the absence of Kitaev-type interactions, and opens a new perspective on quantum spin liquids.Comment: 32 pages, 7 Figure

Atomtronics: ultracold atom analogs of electronic devices

Atomtronics focuses on atom analogs of electronic materials, devices and circuits. A strongly interacting ultracold Bose gas in a lattice potential is analogous to electrons in solid-state crystalline media. As a consequence of the band structure, cold atoms in a lattice can exhibit insulator or conductor properties. P-type and N-type material analogs can be created by introducing impurity sites into the lattice. Current through an atomtronic wire is generated by connecting the wire to an atomtronic battery which maintains the two contacts at different chemical potentials. The design of an atomtronic diode with a strongly asymmetric current-voltage curve exploits the existence of superfluid and insulating regimes in the phase diagram. The atomtronic analog of a bipolar junction transistor exhibits large negative gain. Our results provide the building blocks for more advanced atomtronic devices and circuits such as amplifiers, oscillators and fundamental logic gates

Quantized Vortex States of Strongly Interacting Bosons in a Rotating Optical Lattice

Bose gases in rotating optical lattices combine two important topics in quantum physics: superfluid rotation and strong correlations. In this paper, we examine square two-dimensional systems at zero temperature comprised of strongly repulsive bosons with filling factors of less than one atom per lattice site. The entry of vortices into the system is characterized by jumps of 2 pi in the phase winding of the condensate wavefunction. A lattice of size L X L can have at most L-1 quantized vortices in the lowest Bloch band. In contrast to homogeneous systems, angular momentum is not a good quantum number since the continuous rotational symmetry is broken by the lattice. Instead, a quasi-angular momentum captures the discrete rotational symmetry of the system. Energy level crossings indicative of quantum phase transitions are observed when the quasi-angular momentum of the ground-state changes.Comment: 12 Pages, 13 Figures, Version