Ising antiferromagnet with ultracold bosonic mixtures confined in a harmonic trap

TL;DR

This paper uses Quantum Monte Carlo simulations to investigate how harmonic confinement affects the realization of Ising antiferromagnetic phases in two-component bosonic systems on a lattice, providing conditions for experimental observation.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed analysis of the impact of harmonic trapping on antiferromagnetic phases in ultracold bosonic mixtures, guiding experimental setups.

Findings

Antiferromagnetic phase can be observed with specific particle numbers and population imbalances.

Harmonic confinement challenges the stability of the antiferromagnetic phase.

Conditions for experimental realization are quantitatively established.

Abstract

We present accurate results based on Quantum Monte Carlo simulations of two-component bosonic systems on a square lattice and in the presence of an external harmonic confinement. Starting from hopping parameters and interaction strengths which stabilize the Ising antiferromagnetic phase in the homogeneous case and at half integer filling factor, we study how the presence of the harmonic confinement challenge the realization of such phase. We consider realistic trapping frequencies and number of particles, and establish under which conditions, i.e. total number of particles and population imbalance, the antiferromagnetic phase can be observed in the trap.