Bogdan Damski

Atomic Bose and Anderson Glasses in Optical Lattices

An ultracold atomic Bose gas in an optical lattice is shown to provide an ideal system for the controlled analysis of disordered Bose lattice gases. This goal may be easily achieved under the current experimental conditions by introducing a pseudorandom potential created by a second additional lattice or, alternatively, by placing a speckle pattern on the main lattice. We show that, for a noncommensurable filling factor, in the strong-interaction limit, a controlled growing of the disorder drives a dynamical transition from superfluid to Bose-glass phase. Similarly, in the weak interaction limit, a dynamical transition from superfluid to Anderson-glass phase may be observed. In both regimes, we show that even very low-intensity disorder-inducing lasers cause large modifications of the superfluid fraction of the system.

The Simplest Quantum Model Supporting the Kibble-Zurek Mechanism of Topological Defect Production: Landau-Zener Transitions from a New Perspective

It can be shown that the dynamics of the Landau-Zener model can be accurately described in terms of the Kibble-Zurek theory of the topological defect production in nonequilibrium phase transitions. The simplest quantum model exhibiting the Kibble-Zurek mechanism is presented. A new intuitive description of Landau-Zener dynamics is found.

Creation of a Dipolar Superfluid in Optical Lattices

We show that, by loading a Bose-Einstein condensate of two different atomic species into an optical lattice, it is possible to achieve a Mott-insulator phase with exactly one atom of each species per lattice site. A subsequent photoassociation leads to the formation of one heteronuclear molecule with a large electric dipole moment, at each lattice site. The melting of such a dipolar Mott insulator creates a dipolar superfluid, and eventually a dipolar molecular condensate.

Mott-Insulator States of Ultracold Atoms in Optical Resonators

We study the low temperature physics of an ultracold atomic gas in the potential formed inside a pumped optical resonator. Here, the height of the cavity potential, and hence the quantum state of the gas, depends not only on the pump parameters, but also on the atomic density through a dynamical ac-Stark shift of the cavity resonance. We derive the Bose-Hubbard model in one dimension and use the strong coupling expansion to determine the parameter regime in which the system is in the Mott-insulator state. We predict the existence of overlapping, competing Mott-insulator states, and bistable behavior in the vicinity of the shifted cavity resonance, controlled by the pump parameters. Outside these parameter regions, the state of the system is in most cases superfluid.

Quantum fidelity in the thermodynamic limit.

We study quantum fidelity, the overlap between two ground states of a many-body system, focusing on the thermodynamic regime. We show how a drop in fidelity near a critical point encodes universal information about a quantum phase transition. Our general scaling results are illustrated in the quantum Ising chain for which a remarkably simple expression for fidelity is found.

Formation of shock waves in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We consider propagation of density wave packets in a Bose-Einstein condensate. We show that the shape of initially broad, laser-induced, density perturbation changes in the course of free time evolution so that a shock wave front finally forms. Our results are well beyond predictions of commonly used zero-amplitude approach, so they can be useful in extraction of a speed of sound from experimental data. We discuss a simple experimental setup for shock propagation and point out possible limitations of the mean-field approach for description of shock phenomena in a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Dynamics of a quantum phase transition in a ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate.

We discuss dynamics of a slow quantum phase transition in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate. We analytically determine the scaling properties of the system magnetization and verify them with numerical simulations in a one dimensional model.

Quantum gases in trimerized kagome lattices

We study low-temperature properties of atomic gases in trimerized optical kagome lattices. The laser arrangements that can be used to create these lattices are briefly described. We also present explicit results for the coupling constants of the generalized Hubbard models that can be realized in such lattices. In the case of a single-component Bose gas the existence of a Mott insulator phase with fractional numbers of particles per trimer is verified in a mean-field approach. The main emphasis of the paper is on an atomic spinless interacting Fermi gas in the trimerized kagome lattice with two fermions per site. This system is shown to be described by a quantum spin-1 / 2 model on the triangular lattice with couplings that depend on the bond directions. We investigate this model by means of exact diagonalization. Our key finding is that the system exhibits nonstandard properties of a quantum spin-liquid crystal: it combines planar antiferromagnetic order in the ground state with an exceptionally large number of low-energy excitations. The possibilities of experimental verification of our theoretical results are critically discussed.

Adiabatic-impulse approximation for avoided level crossings : From phase-transition dynamics to Landau-Zener evolutions and back again

We show that a simple approximation based on concepts underlying the Kibble-Zurek theory of second order phase-transition dynamics can be used to treat avoided level crossing problems. The approach discussed in this paper provides an intuitive insight into quantum dynamics of two-level systems, and may serve as a link between the theory of dynamics of classical and quantum phase transitions. To illustrate these ideas we analyze dynamics of a paramagnet-ferromagnet quantum phase transition in the Ising model. We also present exact unpublished solutions of the Landau-Zener-like problems.

Exact results for fidelity susceptibility of the quantum Ising model: the interplay between parity, system size, and magnetic field

We derive an exact closed-form expression for fidelity susceptibility of even- and odd-sized quantum Ising chains in a transverse field. To this aim, we diagonalize the Ising Hamiltonian and study the gap between its positive and negative parity subspaces. We derive an exact closed-form expression for the gap and use it to identify the parity of the ground state. We point out the misunderstanding in some of the former studies of fidelity susceptibility and discuss its consequences. Last but not least, we rigorously analyze the properties of the gap. For example, we derive analytical expressions showing its exponential dependence on the ratio between the system size and the correlation length.