Ground-state properties of fermionic mixtures with mass imbalance in optical lattices

Ground-state properties of fermionic mixtures confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice are studied numerically within the spinless Falicov-Kimball model with a harmonic trap. A number of remarkable results are found. (i) At low particle filling the system exhibits the phase separation with heavy atoms in the center of the trap and light atoms in the surrounding regions. (ii) Mott-insulating phases always coexist with metallic phases. (iii) Atomic-density waves are observed in the insulating regions for all particle fillings near half-filled lattice case. (iv) The variance of the local density exhibits the universal behavior (independent of the particle filling, the Coulomb interaction and the strength of a confining potential) over the whole region of the local density values.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Phases of lattice hard core bosons in a periodic superlattice

We study by Quantum Monte Carlo simulations the phase diagram of lattice hard core bosons with nearest-neighbour repulsive interactions, in the presence of a super-lattice of adsorption sites. For a moderate adsorption strength, the system forms crystal phases registered with the adsorption lattice; a "supersolid" phase exists, on both the vacancy and interstitial sides, whereas at commensuration the superfluid density vanishes. The possible relevance of these results to experiments on $^4$He films adsorbed on graphite is discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Tribological Behavior of Very Thin Confined Films

The tribological properties of two smooth surfaces in the presence of a thin confined film are investigated with a generic model for the interaction between two surfaces and with computer simulations. It is shown that at large normal contact pressures, an ultra thin film automatically leads to static friction between two flat surfaces - even if the surfaces are incommensurate. Commensurability is nevertheless the key quantity to understand the tribological behavior of the contact. Qualitative differences between commensurate and incommensurate contacts remain even in the presence of a thin film. The differences mainly concern the thermal diffusion of the contact and the transition between smooth sliding and stick-slip.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Pfaffian-like ground state for 3-body-hard-core bosons in 1D lattices

We propose a Pfaffian-like Ansatz for the ground state of bosons subject to 3-body infinite repulsive interactions in a 1D lattice. Our Ansatz consists of the symmetrization over all possible ways of distributing the particles in two identical Tonks-Girardeau gases. We support the quality of our Ansatz with numerical calculations and propose an experimental scheme based on mixtures of bosonic atoms and molecules in 1D optical lattices in which this Pfaffian-like state could be realized. Our findings may open the way for the creation of non-abelian anyons in 1D systems

Characteristics of Bose-Einstein condensation in an optical lattice

We discuss several possible experimental signatures of the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) transition for an ultracold Bose gas in an inhomogeneous optical lattice. Based on the commonly used time-of-flight imaging technique, we show that the momentum-space density profile in the first Brillouin zone, supplemented by the visibility of interference patterns, provides valuable information about the system. In particular, by crossing the BEC transition temperature, the appearance of a clear bimodal structure sets a qualitative and universal signature of this phase transition. Furthermore, the momentum distribution can also be applied to extract the condensate fraction, which may serve as a promising thermometer in such a system.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures; Revised version with new figures; Phys. Rev. A 77, 043626 (2008

Mott Transitions of Three-Component Fermionic Atoms with Repulsive Interaction in Optical Lattices

We investigate the Mott transitions of three-component (colors) repulsive fermionic atoms in optical lattices using the dynamical mean field theory. We find that for SU(3) symmetry breaking interactions the Mott transition occurs at incommensurate half filling. As a result, a characteristic Mott insulating state appears, where paired atoms with two different colors and atoms with the third color are localized at different sites. We also find another Mott state where atoms with two different colors are localized at different sites and atoms with the third color remain itinerant. We demonstrate that these exotic Mott phases can be detected by experimental double occupancy observations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure