Spinor Bosonic Atoms in Optical Lattices: Symmetry Breaking and Fractionalization

We investigate strongly correlated spin-1 ultracold bosons with antiferromagnetic interactions in a cubic optical lattice, based on bosonic dynamical mean-field theory. Rich phase diagrams of the system are mapped out at both zero and finite temperature, and in particular the existence of a spin-singlet condensate is established. Interestingly, at finite temperature, we find that the superfluid can be heated into a Mott insulator with even (odd) filling via a first- (second-)...

Motivated by recent experimental processes, we systemically investigate strongly correlated spin-1 ultracold bosons trapped in a three-dimensional optical lattice in the presence of an external magnetic field. Based on a recently developed bosonic dynamical mean-field theory (BDMFT), we map out complete phase diagrams of the system for both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions, where various phases are found as a result of the interplay of spin-dependent interacti...

We study bosonic atoms in small optical lattices by exact diagonalization and observe a striking similarity to the superfluid to Mott insulator transition in macroscopic systems. The momentum distribution, the formation of an energy gap, and the pair correlation function show only a weak size dependence. For noncommensurate filling we reveal in deep lattices a mixture of localized and delocalized particles, which is sensitive to lattice imperfections. Breaking the lattice sym...

In this paper we study the superfluid-Mott-insulator phase transition of ultracold dilute gas of bosonic atoms in an optical lattice by means of Green function method and Bogliubov transformation as well. The superfluid- Mott-insulator phase transition condition is determined by the energy-band structure with an obvious interpretation of the transition mechanism. Moreover the superfluid phase is explained explicitly from the energy spectrum derived in terms of Bogliubov appro...

Interacting bosons with two "spin'' states in a lattice show novel superfluid-insulator phase transitions in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. Depending on the parameter regime, bosons in the superfluid phase can condense to either a zero momentum state or to one or multiple states with finite momentum, leading to an unconventional superfluid phase. We study the response of such a system to modulation of the optical lattice potential. We show that the change in momentum di...

The superfluid-Mott insulator transition of spin-2 boson atoms with repulsive interaction in an optical lattice in a magnetic field is presented. By using the mean field theory, Mott ground states and phase diagrams of superfluid-Mott insulator transition at zero temperature are revealed. Applied magnetic field leads to some phase boundaries splitting. For all the initial Mott ground states containing multiple spin components, different spin components take on different phase...

We present a theoretical analysis of the phase diagram of two--component bosons on an optical lattice. A new formalism is developed which treats the effective spin interactions in the Mott and superfluid phases on the same footing. Using the new approach we chart the phase boundaries of the broken spin symmetry states up to the Mott to superfluid transition and beyond. Near the transition point, the magnitude of spin exchange can be very large, which facilitates the experimen...

We examine particle entanglement, characterized by pseudo-spin squeezing, of spin-1 bosonic atoms with coupled ground states in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Both the superfluid and Mott-insulator phases are investigated separately for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions. Mode entanglement is also discussed in the Mott insulating phase. The role of a small but nonzero angle between the polarization vectors of counter-propagating lasers forming the optical la...

Intrinsic spin angular-momentum coupling of an electron has a relativistic quantum origin with the coupling arising from charged-orbits, which does not carry over to charge-neutral atoms. Here we propose a mechanism of spontaneous generation of spin angular-momentum coupling with spinor atomic bosons loaded into $p$-orbital bands of a two-dimensional optical-lattice. This spin angular-momentum coupling originates from many-body correlations and spontaneous symmetry breaking i...

We design a model of correlated hopping for bosonic atoms in optical lattices. Such model exhibits three kinds of phases, comprehending a Mott insulator, a charge density wave and a pair quasi-condensate. The implementation of the model relies on two-state atoms embedded in state-dependent lattices and having spin-dependent interactions. Contrary to other models of pairing, our design is not based on perturbative effects and should be observable in current experiments.