Mixtures of strongly interacting bosons in optical lattices

TL;DR

This paper studies strongly interacting heteronuclear boson mixtures in optical lattices, explaining experimental coherence loss due to potassium addition and exploring the stability of quantum emulsions under realistic conditions.

Contribution

It provides numerical insights into interface physics, coherence loss mechanisms, and the robustness of quantum emulsions in realistic experimental setups.

Findings

Addition of K causes significant coherence loss in Rb.

Numerical reproduction of experimental observations.

Quantum emulsions are robust against inhomogeneity.

Abstract

We investigate the properties of strongly interacting heteronuclear boson-boson mixtures loaded in realistic optical lattices, with particular emphasis on the physics of interfaces. In particular, we numerically reproduce the recent experimental observation that the addition of a small fraction of K induces a significant loss of coherence in Rb, providing a simple explanation. We then investigate the robustness against the inhomogeneity typical of realistic experimental realizations of the glassy quantum emulsions recently predicted to occur in strongly interacting boson-boson mixtures on ideal homogeneous lattices.