Classical and quantum features of the superfluid to Mott insulator transition

2007/01/16 by Dirk Witthaut, Witthaut, D., F. Trimborn +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0701383

openalex publication_date 2007/01/16 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We analyze the correspondence of many-particle and mean-field dynamics for a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice. Representing many-particle quantum states by a classical phase space ensemble instead of one single mean-field trajectory and taking into account the quantization of the density by a modified integer Gross-Pitaevskii equation, it is possible to simulate the superfluid to Mott insulator transition and other phenomena purely classically. This approach can be easily extended to higher particle numbers and multidimensional lattices. Moreover it provides an excellent tool to classify true quantum features and to analyze the mean-field -- many particle correspondence.

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