2006/02/28 by M. Rigol, Marcos Rigol, R. T. Scalettar +4 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.73.121103
published as Phys. Rev. B 73, 121103(R) (2006) · 5 pages, 6 figures, published version
openalex publication_date 2006/03/22 · arxiv created 2006/03/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study, using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, the energetics of the formation of Mott domains of fermions and bosons trapped on one-dimensional lattices. We show that, in both cases, the sum of kinetic and interaction energies exhibits minima when Mott domains appear in the trap. In addition, we examine the derivatives of the kinetic and interaction energies, and of their sum, which display clear signatures of the Mott transition. We discuss the relevance of these findings to time-of-flight experiments that could allow the detection of the metal--Mott-insulator transition in confined fermions on optical lattices, and support established results on the superfluid--Mott-insulator transition in confined bosons on optical lattices.