On the existence of supersolid helium-4 monolayer films

Extensive Monte Carlo simulations of helium-4 monolayer films adsorbed on weak substrates have been carried out, aimed at ascertaining the possible occurrence of a quasi-two-dimensional supersolid phase. Only crystalline films not registered with underlying substrates are considered. Numerical results yield strong evidence that helium-4 will not form a supersolid film on {any} substrate strong enough to stabilize a crystalline layer. On weaker substrates, continuous growth of a liquid film takes place

A superfluid-droplet crystal and a free-space supersolid in a dipole-blockaded gas

A novel supersolid phase is predicted for an ensemble of Rydberg atoms in the dipole-blockade regime, interacting via a repulsive dipolar potential "softened" at short distances. Using exact numerical techniques, we study the low temperature phase diagram of this system, and observe an intriguing phase consisting of a crystal of mesoscopic superfluid droplets. At low temperature, phase coherence throughout the whole system, and the ensuing bulk superfluidity, are established through tunnelling of identical particles between neighbouring droplets.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Strongly correlated gases of Rydberg-dressed atoms: quantum and classical dynamics

We discuss techniques to generate long-range interactions in a gas of groundstate alkali atoms, by weakly admixing excited Rydberg states with laser light. This provides a tool to engineer strongly correlated phases with reduced decoherence from inelastic collisions and spontaneous emission. As an illustration, we discuss the quantum phases of dressed atoms with dipole-dipole interactions confined in a harmonic potential, as relevant to experiments. We show that residual spontaneous emission from the Rydberg state acts as a heating mechanism, leading to a quantum-classical crossover.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Thin helium film on a glass substrate

We investigate by Monte Carlo simulations the structure, energetics and superfluid properties of thin helium-four films (up to four layers) on a glass substrate, at low temperature. The first adsorbed layer is found to be solid and "inert", i.e., atoms are localized and do not participate to quantum exchanges. Additional layers are liquid, with no clear layer separation above the second one. It is found that a single helium-three impurity resides on the outmost layer, not significantly further away from the substrate than helium-four atoms on the same layer.Comment: Six figures, submitted for publication to the Journal of Low Temperature Physic

Off-diagonal correlations in a one-dimensional gas of dipolar bosons

We present a quantum Monte Carlo study of the one-body density matrix (OBDM) and the momentum distribution of one-dimensional dipolar bosons, with dipole moments polarized perpendicular to the direction of confinement. We observe that the long-range nature of the dipole interaction has dramatic effects on the off-diagonal correlations: although the dipoles never crystallize, the system goes from a quasi-condensate regime at low interactions to a regime in which quasi-condensation is discarded, in favor of quasi-solidity. For all strengths of the dipolar interaction, the OBDM shows an oscillatory behavior coexisting with an overall algebraic decay; and the momentum distribution shows sharp kinks at the wavevectors of the oscillations, $Q = \pm 2\pi n$ (where $n$ is the atom density), beyond which it is strongly suppressed. This \emph{momentum filtering} effect introduces a characteristic scale in the momentum distribution, which can be arbitrarily squeezed by lowering the atom density. This shows that one-dimensional dipolar Bose gases, realized e.g. by trapped dipolar molecules, show strong signatures of the dipolar interaction in time-of-flight measurements.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. v2: fixed a mistake in the comparison with Ref. 9, as well as several typos. Published versio

Melting of a p-H2 monolayer on a lithium substrate

Adsorption of para-hydrogen films on Alkali metals substrates at low temperature is studied theoretically by means of Path Integral Monte Carlo simulations. Realistic potentials are utilized to model the interaction between two para-hydrogen molecules, as well as between a para-hydrogenmolecule and the substrate, assumed smooth. Results show that adsorption of para-hydrogen on a Lithium substrate, the most attractive among the Alkali, occurs through completion of successive solid adlayers. Each layer has a two-dimensional density approximatley equal 0.070 inverse square Angstroms. A solid para-hydrogen monolayer displays a higher degree of confinement, in the direction perpendicular to the substrate, than a monolayer Helium film, and has a melting temperature of about 6.5 K. The other Alkali substrates are not attractive enough to be wetted by molecular hydrogen at low temperature. No evidence of a possible superfluid phase of para-hydrogen is seen in these systems.Comment: Scales on the y-axis in Figs. 4,5 and 7 are off by a factor 2 in published version; corrected her

Path Integral Monte Carlo study of phonons in the bcc phase of 4^4He

Using Path Integral Monte Carlo and the Maximum Entropy method, we calculate the dynamic structure factor of solid $^4$He in the bcc phase at a finite temperature of T = 1.6 K and a molar volume of 21 cm$^3$. Both the single-phonon contribution to the dynamic structure factor and the total dynamic structure factor are evaluated. From the dynamic structure factor, we obtain the phonon dispersion relations along the main crystalline directions, [001], [011] and [111]. We calculate both the longitudinal and transverse phonon branches. For the latter, no previous simulations exist. We discuss the differences between dispersion relations resulting from the single-phonon part vs. the total dynamic structure factor. In addition, we evaluate the formation energy of a vacancy.Comment: 10 figure

Path integral Monte Carlo simulation of charged particles in traps

This chapter is devoted to the computation of equilibrium (thermodynamic) properties of quantum systems. In particular, we will be interested in the situation where the interaction between particles is so strong that it cannot be treated as a small perturbation. For weakly coupled systems many efficient theoretical and computational techniques do exist. However, for strongly interacting systems such as nonideal gases or plasmas, strongly correlated electrons and so on, perturbation methods fail and alternative approaches are needed. Among them, an extremely successful one is the Monte Carlo (MC) method which we are going to consider in this chapter.Comment: 18 pages, based on talks on Hareaus school on computational methods, Greifswald, September 200

Hole-pair hopping in arrangements of hole-rich/hole-poor domains in a quantum antiferromagnet

We study the motion of holes in a doped quantum antiferromagnet in the presence of arrangements of hole-rich and hole-poor domains such as the stripe-phase in high-$T_C$ cuprates. When these structures form, it becomes energetically favorable for single holes, pairs of holes or small bound-hole clusters to hop from one hole-rich domain to another due to quantum fluctuations. However, we find that at temperature of approximately 100 K, the probability for bound hole-pair exchange between neighboring hole-rich regions in the stripe phase, is one or two orders of magnitude larger than single-hole or multi-hole droplet exchange. As a result holes in a given hole-rich domain penetrate further into the antiferromagnetically aligned domains when they do it in pairs. At temperature of about 100 K and below bound pairs of holes hop from one hole-rich domain to another with high probability. Therefore our main finding is that the presence of the antiferromagnetic hole-poor domains act as a filter which selects, from the hole-rich domains (where holes form a self-bound liquid), hole pairs which can be exchanged throughout the system. This fluid of bound hole pairs can undergo a superfluid phase ordering at the above mentioned temperature scale.Comment: Revtex, 6 two-column pages, 4 figure

Stripes and the t-J model

We investigate the two-dimensional t-J model at a hole doping of x = 1/8 and J/t = 0.35 with exact diagonalization. The low-energy states are uniform (not striped). We find numerous excited states with charge density wave structures, which may be interpreted as striped phases. Some of these are consistent with neutron scattering data on the cuprates and nickelates.Comment: 4 pages; 4 eps figures included in text; Revte