Multi-analytical study of historical semiconductor pigments

This work is focused on the study of semiconductor-based pigments, which substituted traditional pigments in the second half of the 19th century. Syn- thetic semiconductor pigments may be chemically unstable due to the presence of many impurities unintentionally introduced during manufacturing. The aim of this work is to provide an insight on the application of X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) for the analysis of these painting materials, including both Cd- and Zn-based pigments. Three different approaches have been followed: the semi-quantitative analysis of samples with similar elemental composition, the complementary use of XRF and Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of elemental and molecular composition and the synchrotron-based XRF and XANES for the detection of impurities. The syn- ergetic combination of different techniques provides information useful for the defi- nition of specific markers for future analysis of paint-samples with implications for the conservation and treatment of late 19th and early 20th century paintings

Phase diagram and thermodynamics of the three-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model

We report results of quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the Bose-Hubbard model in three dimensions. Critical parameters for the superfluid-to-Mott-insulator transition are determined with significantly higher accuracy than it has been done in the past. In particular, the position of the critical point at filling factor n=1 is found to be at (U/t)_c = 29.34(2), and the insulating gap Delta is measured with accuracy of a few percent of the hopping amplitude t. We obtain the effective mass of particle and hole excitations in the insulating state--with explicit demonstration of the emerging particle-hole symmetry and relativistic dispersion law at the transition tip--along with the sound velocity in the strongly correlated superfluid phase. These parameters are the necessary ingredients to perform analytic estimates of the low temperature (T << Delta) thermodynamics in macroscopic samples. We present accurate thermodynamic curves, including these for specific heat and entropy, for typical insulating (U/t=40) and superfluid (t/U=0.0385) phases. Our data can serve as a basis for accurate experimental thermometry, and a guide for appropriate initial conditions if one attempts to use interacting bosons in quantum information processing.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure

Thermometry of bosonic mixtures in Optical Lattices via Demixing

Motivated by recent experiments and theoretical investigations on binary mixtures, we investigate the miscible-immiscible transition at finite temperature by means of Quantum Monte Carlo. Based on the observation that the segregated phase is strongly affected by temperature, we propose to use the degree of demixing for thermometry of a binary bosonic mixture trapped in an optical lattice. We show that the proposed method is especially sensitive at low temperatures, of the order of the tunnelling amplitude, and therefore is particularly suitable in the regime where quantum magnetism is expected.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Supplemental Materia

Critical entropies for magnetic ordering in bosonic mixtures on a lattice

We perform a numeric study (worm algorithm Monte Carlo simulations) of ultracold two-component bosons in two- and three-dimensional optical lattices. At strong enough interactions and low enough temperatures the system features magnetic ordering. We compute critical temperatures and entropies for the disappearance of the Ising antiferromagnetic and the xy-ferromagnetic order and find that the largest possible entropies per particle are ~0.5kB. We also estimate (optimistically) the experimental hold times required to reach equilibrium magnetic states to be on a scale of seconds. Low critical entropies and long hold times render the experimental observations of magnetic phases challenging and call for increased control over heating sources.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Mott Insulator to Superfluid transition in Bose-Bose mixtures in a two-dimensional lattice

We perform a numeric study (Worm algorithm Monte Carlo simulations) of ultracold two-component bosons in two-dimensional optical lattices. We study how the Mott insulator to superfluid transition is affected by the presence of a second superfluid bosonic species. We find that, at fixed interspecies interaction, the upper and lower boundaries of the Mott lobe are differently modified. The lower boundary is strongly renormalized even for relatively low filling factor of the second component and moderate (interspecies) interaction. The upper boundary, instead, is affected only for large enough filling of the second component. Whereas boundaries are renormalized we find evidence of polaron-like excitations. Our results are of interest for current experimental setups.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted as PRA Rapid Communicatio

Superfluid-Insulator and Roughening Transitions in Domain Walls

We have performed quantum Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the superfluid behavior of one- and two-dimensional interfaces separating checkerboard solid domains. The system is described by the hard-core Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian with nearest-neighbor interaction. In accordance with Ref.1, we find that (i) the interface remains superfluid in a wide range of interaction strength before it undergoes a superfluid-insulator transition; (ii) in one dimension, the transition is of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type and is accompanied by the roughening transition, driven by proliferation of charge 1/2 quasiparticles; (iii) in two dimensions, the transition belongs to the 3D U(1) universality class and the interface remains smooth. Similar phenomena are expected for domain walls in quantum antiferromagnets.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures; references added, typo corrected in fig

Superconducting transition temperature of the Bose one-component plasma

We present results of first principle numerical simulations of the Bose one-component plasma, i.e., a Bose gas with pairwise Coulomb interactions among particles and a uniform neutralizing background. We compute the superconducting transition temperature for a wide range of densities, in two and three dimensions, for both continuous and lattice versions of the model. Our results are of direct relevance to quantitative studies of bipolaron mechanisms of (high-temperature) superconductivity.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Quantum magnetism and counterflow supersolidity of up-down bosonic dipoles

We study a gas of dipolar Bosons confined in a two-dimensional optical lattice. Dipoles are considered to point freely in both up and down directions perpendicular to the lattice plane. This results in a nearest neighbor repulsive (attractive) interaction for aligned (anti-aligned) dipoles. We find regions of parameters where the ground state of the system exhibits insulating phases with ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic ordering, as well as with rational values of the average magnetization. Evidence for the existence of a novel counterflow supersolid quantum phase is also presented.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Multiworm algorithm quantum Monte Carlo

We review the path-integral quantum Monte Carlo method and discuss its implementation by multiworm algorithms. We analyze in details the features of the algorithms, and focus our attention on the computation of the $N$-body density matrix to study N-body correlations. Finally, we demonstrate the validity of the algorithms on a system of dipolar bosons trapped in a stack of $N$ one-dimensional layers in the case of zero and finite inter-layer hopping.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure

Novel Mechanism of Supersolid of Ultracold Polar Molecules in Optical Lattices

We study the checkerboard supersolid of the hard-core Bose-Hubbard model with the dipole-dipole interaction. This supersolid is different from all other supersolids found in lattice models in the sense that superflow paths through which interstitials or vacancies can hop freely are absent in the crystal. By focusing on repulsive interactions between interstitials, we reveal that the long-range tail of the dipole-dipole interaction have the role of increasing the energy cost of domain wall formations. This effect produces the supersolid by the second-order hopping process of defects. We also perform exact quantum Monte Carlo simulations and observe a novel double peak structure in the momentum distribution of bosons, which is a clear evidence for supersolid. This can be measured by the time-of-flight experiment in optical lattice systems