Quench induced Mott insulator to superfluid quantum phase transition

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Mott insulators transition to superfluid states after a quench, revealing that in 1D and 2D they equilibrate to thermal states without true superfluid order, while in 3D true superfluidity emerges.

Contribution

It combines numerical and analytical methods to analyze the post-quench dynamics, clarifying the conditions for superfluid order emergence in different dimensions.

Findings

1D and 2D systems equilibrate to thermal states with short-range coherence.

3D systems show divergence in momentum distribution, indicating true superfluid order.

Abstract

Mott insulator to superfluid quenches have been used by recent experiments to generate exotic superfluid phases. While the final Hamiltonian following the sudden quench is that of a superfluid, it is not a priori clear how close the final state of the system approaches the ground state of the superfluid Hamiltonian. To understand the nature of the final state we calculate the temporal evolution of the momentum distribution following a Mott insulator to superfluid quench. Using the numerical infinite time-evolving block decimation approach and the analytical rotor model approximation we establish that the one and two dimensional Mott insulators following the quench equilibriate to thermal states with spatially short-ranged coherence peaks in the final momentum distribution and therefore are not strict superfluids. However, in three dimensions we find a divergence in the momentum distribution indicating the emergence of true superfluid order.