Recovery of Hidden Interference in Mott Insulators

TL;DR

This paper investigates how particle distinguishability affects the transition from superfluid to Mott insulator states in the Hubbard model, revealing a maximally entangled superposition state detectable via interference patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of distinguishable particles in the Hubbard model, showing the emergence of a maximally entangled superposition state during the superfluid to Mott insulator transition.

Findings

Recovery of interference patterns confirms the superposition state.

The final state is maximally entangled, contrasting standard models.

Transition dynamics depend on particle distinguishability.

Abstract

Particle statistics plays a crucial role in a strongly interacting quantum many-body system. Here, we study the Hubbard model for distinguishable particles at unit filling. Starting from the superfluid-like state in the strong tunneling limit and gradually reducing the tunneling so that the on-site repulsive interaction dominates, the state ends up in a symmetric superposition of Mott insulator states. This result can be experimentally confirmed by the recovery of interference patterns in the density correlation functions. We also show that this state is a maximally entangled state, in contrast to the standard picture.