We study the first-order quantum phase transitions of Bose gases in optical lattices. A special emphasis is placed on an anomalous hysteresis behavior, in which the phase transition occurs in a unidirectional way and a hysteresis loop does not form. We first revisit the hardcore Bose-Hubbard model with dipole-dipole interactions on a triangular lattice to analyze accurately the ground-state phase diagram and the hysteresis using the cluster mean-field theory combined with cluster-size scaling. Details of the anomalous hysteresis are presented. We next consider the two-component and spin-1 Bose-Hubbard models on a hypercubic lattice and show that the anomalous hysteresis can emerge in these systems as well. In particular, for the former model, we discuss the experimental feasibility of the first-order transitions and the associated hysteresis. We also explain an underlying mechanism of the anomalous hysteresis by means of the Ginzburg-Landau theory. From the given cases, we conclude that the anomalous hysteresis is a ubiquitous phenomenon of systems with a phase region of lobe shape that is surrounded by the first-order boundary.

We study stability of superflow of Bose gases in optical lattices by analyzing the Bose-Hubbard model within the Gutzwiller mean-field approximation. We calculate the excitation spectra of the homogeneous Bose-Hubbard model at unit filling to determine the critical momenta for the Landau and dynamical instabilities. These two critical momenta are shown to approach each other when the on-site interaction increases towards the Mott transition point. In order to make a direct connection with realistic experiments, we next take into account a parabolic trapping potential and compute the real-time dynamics of dipole oscillations induced by suddenly displacing the trap center. We consider the following two cases: standard softcore bosons, whose interparticle interactions include the on-site one only, and hardcore bosons with long-range dipole-dipole interactions. For both cases, we show that the dipole oscillation is significantly damped when the maximum local momentum exceeds a certain threshold, which quantitatively agrees with the critical momentum for the dynamical instability in the homogeneous system. In the case of dipolar hardcore bosons, the dynamical instability of dipole oscillations leads to the formation of checkerboard density waves in the superfluid phase near the boundary to the supersolid phase.

We study elementary excitations of spin-1 bosons with antiferromagnetic interaction in an optical lattice by applying the Gutzwiller approximation to the spin-1 Bose-Hubbard model. There appear various excitations associated with spin degrees of freedom in the Mott-insulator (MI) phase as well as in the superfluid (SF) phase. In this system, the ground state in the MI phase is known to exhibit a remarkable effect of even-odd parity of particle filling, in which even fillings stabilize the MI state due to formation of spin-singlet pairs. We find that excitation spectra in the MI phase exhibit characteristic features that reflect the even-odd parity effect of the ground state. We clarify evolution of elementary excitations across the quantum critical point of the SF-MI transition.

No abstract

We study the ground-state properties of mixtures of strongly interacting bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. Applying a mean-field approximation to the Hubbard model for Bose-Bose mixtures, we calculate the densities and superfluid order parameters for both species. Due to the repulsive interaction between the two species, the system exhibits phase separation. First, in the extreme limit of the zero-hopping case, we derive analytical expressions for the phase boundaries. In particular, we derive the conditions for phase separation in the Mott insulator phase. We find that the conditions for the phase separation depend on the on-site interactions as well as the occupation numbers. In particular, we show that the coexisting state appears by varying the on-site interspecies interaction. We also show the phase diagram of the finite hopping case. Second, we calculate the spatial density profile of 87 Rb-41 K mixtures in the combined potential of a parabolic trap and an optical lattice using the local density approximation. We fixed the number of 87 Rb and varied the number of 41 K, and used the parameters estimated by experiments. We show that the phase separated 87 Rb-41 K mixtures distribute like in a parabolic trap case. Furthermore, we find that phase separated mixtures distribute a nesting structure.