2006/06/06 by I. Garcia-Mata, I. García-Mata, O. V. Zhirov +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #Quantum many-body systems #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.other #nlin.CD #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epjd/e2006-00220-2
published as Eur. Phys. J. D 41, 325 (2007) · RevTeX, 5 pages, 11 figures, research at http://www.quantware.ups-tlse.fr
arxiv created 2006/06/06 · openalex publication_date 2006/09/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study analytically and numerically the properties of one-dimensional chain of cold ions placed in a periodic potential of optical lattice and global harmonic potential of a trap. In close similarity with the Frenkel-Kontorova model, a transition from sliding to pinned phase takes place with the increase of the optical lattice potential for the density of ions incommensurate with the lattice period. Quantum fluctuations lead to a quantum phase transition and melting of pinned instanton glass phase at large values of dimensional Planck constant. The obtained results are also relevant for a Wigner crystal placed in a periodic potential.