2008/07/31 by Sebastian D. Huber, G. Blatter, Gianni Blatter
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat.other #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.79.174504
published as Phys. Rev. B 79, 174504 (2009) · 11 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2009/04/28 · openalex publication_date 2009/05/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Harmonically trapped lattice bosons with strong repulsive interactions exhibit a superfluid-Mott-insulator heterostructure in the form of a ``wedding cake.'' We discuss the mesoscopic aspects of such a system within a one-dimensional scattering matrix approach and calculate the scattering properties of quasiparticles at a superfluid-Mott-insulator interface as an elementary building block to describe transport phenomena across such a boundary. We apply the formalism to determine the heat conductivity through a Mott layer, a quantity relevant to describe thermalization processes in the optical lattice setup. We identify a critical hopping below which the heat conductivity is strongly suppressed.