Solid phases and pairing in a mixture of polar molecules and atoms

We consider a mixture of hard core bosonic polar molecules, interacting via repulsive dipole-dipole interaction, and one atomic bosonic species. The mixture is confined on a two-dimensional square lattice and, at low enough temperatures, can be described by the two-component Bose-Hubbard model. The latter displays a extremely rich phase diagram including solid, superfluid, supersolid phases. Here we mainly focus on the checkerboard molecular solid, stabilized by the long range dipolar interaction, and study how the presence of atoms affects its robustness both at zero and finite temperature. We find that, due to atom-molecule interaction, solid phases can be stabilized at both, (much) lower strengths of dipolar interaction and higher temperatures, than when no atoms are present. As a byproduct, atoms also order in a solid phase with same melting temperatures as for molecules. Finally, we find that for large enough interaction between atoms and molecules a paired supersolid phase can be stabilized.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Analysis and resolution of the ground-state degeneracy of the two-component Bose-Hubbard model

We study the degeneracy of the ground-state energy $E$ of the two-component Bose-Hubbard model and of the perturbative correction $E_1$. We show that the degeneracy properties of $E$ and $E_1$ are closely related to the connectivity properties of the lattice. We determine general conditions under which $E$ is nondegenerate. This analysis is then extended to investigate the degeneracy of $E_1$. In this case, in addition to the lattice structure, the degeneracy also depends on the number of particles present in the system. After identifying the cases in which $E_1$ is degenerate and observing that the standard (degenerate) perturbation theory is not applicable, we develop a method to determine the zeroth-order correction to the ground state by exploiting the symmetry properties of the lattice. This method is used to implement the perturbative approach to the two-component Bose-Hubbard model in the case of degenerate $E_1$ and is expected to be a valid tool to perturbatively study the asymmetric character of the Mott-insulator to superfluid transition between the particle and hole side

Inter-species entanglement of Bose-Bose mixtures trapped in optical lattices

In the present work we discuss inter-species entanglement in Bose-Bose mixtures trapped in optical lattices. This work is motivated by the observation that, in the presence of a second component, the Mott-insulator lobe shifts {\em{differently}} on the hole- and particle-side with respect to the Mott lobe of the single species system (Phys. Rev. A 82, 021601, Laser Phys. 21, 1443). We use perturbation theory, formulated in a Hilbert space decomposed by means of lattice symmetries, in order to show that the nonuniform shift of the Mott lobe is a consequence of an inter-species entanglement which differs in the lowest excited states to remove and add a particle. Our results indicate that inter-species entanglement in mixtures can provide a new perspective in understanding quantum phase transitions. To validate our approach, we compare our results from perturbation theory with quantum Monte Carlo simulations

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

Equilibrium phases of dipolar lattice bosons in the presence of random diagonal disorder

Ultracold gases offer an unprecedented opportunity to engineer disorder and interactions in a controlled manner. In an effort to understand the interplay between disorder, dipolar interaction and quantum degeneracy, we study two-dimensional hard-core dipolar lattice bosons in the presence of on-site bound disorder. Our results are based on large-scale path-integral quantum Monte Carlo simulations by the Worm algorithm. We study the ground state phase diagram at fixed half-integer filling factor for which the clean system is either a superfluid at lower dipolar interaction strength or a checkerboard solid at larger dipolar interaction strength. We find that, even for weak dipolar interaction, superfluidity is destroyed in favor of a Bose glass at relatively low disorder strength. Interestingly, in the presence of disorder, superfluidity persists for values of dipolar interaction strength for which the clean system is a checkerboard solid. At fixed disorder strength, as the dipolar interaction is increased, superfluidity is destroyed in favor of a Bose glass. As the interaction is further increased, the system eventually develops extended checkerboard patterns in the density distribution. Due to the presence of disorder, though, grain boundaries and defects, responsible for a finite residual compressibility, are present in the density distribution. Finally, we study the robustness of the superfluid phase against thermal fluctuations

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

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

A topological signature of multipartite entanglement

In this manuscript, we present a proposal to relate topological structure of worldline configurations to multipartite entanglement. Configurations result from the path-integral formulation of the density matrix in the limit of zero temperature. We consider hard-core bosons for which configurations, i.e. collections of particle paths, can be seen as geometric braids with a certain topological structure. We propose that properties of worldline configurations may realize a comprehensive deciphering of multipartite entanglement. By means of Monte Carlo calculations, we study checkerboard, stripe, valence-bond solids, $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topologically ordered spin liquid, and superfluid phase. We find that each ground-state is characterized by a certain `topological spectrum' which can be used to differentiate among different ground-states.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures and supplemental material. Version 2 focuses on the discussion of topological signatures of multipartite entanglement in the ground-state expansion, with added results. The study of phase transitions and permutation cycles in version 1 has been moved to a new manuscript: arXiv:1912.00080. Version 3 corrected some typos and reference

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

Quasi-molecular bosonic complexes -- a pathway to atomic analog of SQUID with controlled sensitivity

Recent experimental advances in realizing degenerate quantum dipolar gases in optical lattices and the flexibility of experimental setups in attaining various geometries offer the opportunity to explore exotic quantum many-body phases stabilized by anisotropic, long-range dipolar interaction. Moreover, the unprecedented control over the various physical properties of these systems, ranging from the quantum statistics of the particles, to the inter-particle interactions, allow one to engineer novel devices. In this paper, we consider dipolar bosons trapped in a stack of one-dimensional optical lattice layers, previously studied in [1]. Building on our prior results, we provide a description of the quantum phases stabilized in this system which include composite superfluids, solids, and supercounterfluids, most of which are found to be threshold- less with respect to the dipolar interaction strength. We also demonstrate the effect of enhanced sensitivity to rotations of a SQUID-type device made of two composite superfluids trapped in a ring-shaped optical lattice layer with weak links.Comment: Special Issue Articl