Fractional Quantum Hall states in the vicinity of Mott plateaus

We perform variational Monte-Carlo calculations to show that bosons in a rotating optical lattice will form analogs of fractional quantum Hall states when the tunneling is sufficiently weak compared to the interactions and the deviation of density from an integer is commensurate with the effective magnetic field. We compare the energies of superfluid and correlated states to one-another and to the energies found in full configuration-interaction calculations on small systems. We look at overlaps between our variational states and the exact ground-state, characterizing the ways in which fractional quantum Hall effect correlations manifest themselves near the Mott insulating state. We explore the experimental signatures of these states.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Stirring trapped atoms into fractional quantum Hall puddles

We theoretically explore the generation of few-body analogs of fractional quantum Hall states. We consider an array of identical few-atom clusters (n=2,3,4), each cluster trapped at the node of an optical lattice. By temporally varying the amplitude and phase of the trapping lasers, one can introduce a rotating deformation at each site. We analyze protocols for coherently transferring ground state clusters into highly correlated states, producing theoretical fidelities in excess of 99%.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (13 subfigures) -- v2: published versio

Explanation of 100-fold reduction of spectral shifts for hydrogen on helium films

We show that helium film-mediated hydrogen-hydrogen interactions account for a two orders of magnitude discrepancy between previous theory and recent experiments on cold collision shifts in spin-polarized hydrogen adsorbed on a helium film. These attractive interactions also explain the anomalous dependence of the cold collision frequency shifts on the $^3$He covering of the film. Our findings suggest that the gas will become mechanically unstable before reaching the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition unless the experiment is performed in a drastically different regime, for example with a much different helium film geometry.Comment: 4+ pages, 1 figure (3 subfigures), revtex

Local versus global equilibration near the bosonic Mott-superfluid transition

We study the response of trapped two dimensional cold bosons to time dependent lattices. We find that in lattice ramps from 11 (superfluid, $\hbar/U_{\text{i}} = 3$ms, $\hbar/J_{\text{i}} = 45$ms) to 16 recoils (Mott, $\hbar/U_{\text{f}} = 2$ms, $\hbar/J_{\text{f}} = 130$ms) the local number fluctuations remains at their equilibrium values if ramps are slower than 3 ms. Global transport, however, is much slower (1s), especially in the presence of Mott shells. This separation of timescales has practical implications for cold atom experiments and cooling protocols.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figs. 6 subfigure

Many-body physics in the radio frequency spectrum of lattice bosons

We calculate the radio-frequency spectrum of a trapped cloud of cold bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. Using random phase and local density approximations we produce both trap averaged and spatially resolved spectra, identifying simple features in the spectra that reveal information about both superfluidity and correlations. Our approach is exact in the deep Mott limit and in the deep superfluid when the hopping rates for the two internal spin states are equal. It contains final state interactions, obeys the Ward identities (and the associated conservation laws), and satisfies the $f$-sum rule. Motivated by earlier work by Sun, Lannert, and Vishveshwara [Phys. Rev. A \textbf{79}, 043422 (2009)], we also discuss the features which arise in a spin-dependent optical lattice.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 13 subfigure

Non-Abelian Braiding of Lattice Bosons

We report on a numerical experiment in which we use time-dependent potentials to braid non-abelian quasiparticles. We consider lattice bosons in a uniform magnetic field within the fractional quantum Hall regime, where $\nu$, the ratio of particles to flux quanta, is near 1/2, 1 or 3/2. We introduce time-dependent potentials which move quasiparticle excitations around one another, explicitly simulating a braiding operation which could implement part of a gate in a quantum computation. We find that different braids do not commute for $\nu$ near $1$ and $3/2$, with Berry matrices respectively consistent with Ising and Fibonacci anyons. Near $\nu=1/2$, the braids commute.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

On-site correlations in optical lattices: band mixing to coupled quantum Hall puddles

We extend the standard Bose-Hubbard model to capture arbitrarily strong on-site correlations. In addition to being important for quantitatively modeling experiments, for example, with Rubidium atoms, these correlations must be included to describe more exotic situations. Two such examples are when the interactions are made large via a Feshbach resonance, or when each site rotates rapidly, making a coupled array of quantum Hall puddles. Remarkably, even the mean field approximation to our model includes all on-site correlations. We describe how these on-site correlations manifest themselves in the system's global properties: modifying the phase diagram and depleting the condensate.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure