Extended Bose-Hubbard model in a shaken optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates how shaking a lattice affects an extended Bose-Hubbard model, revealing new phases and critical points, with potential for experimental control of quantum phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of NNN hopping in a shaken optical lattice on the phase diagram, identifying a new $Z_{2}$-SF phase and tunable tricritical points.

Findings

Emergence of $Z_{2}$-SF phase with increased NNN hopping

Identification of tricritical points between phases

Excitation spectra indicating phase transition mechanisms

Abstract

We study an extended Bose-Hubbard model with next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) hopping in a shaken optical lattice. We show how mean-field phase diagram evolves with the change of NNN hopping amplitude $t_{2}$, which can be easily tuned via shaking amplitude. As $t_{2}$ increases, a $Z_{2}$-symmetry-breaking superfluid ($Z_{2}$SF) phase emerges at the bottom of the Mott lobs. The tricritical points between normal superfluid, $Z_{2}$SF, and Mott insulator (MI) phases are identified. We further demonstrate the tricritical point can be tuned to the tip of the Mott lobe, in which case a new critical behavior has been predicted. Within random-phase approximation, excitation spectra in the three phases are obtained, which indicate how the phase transitions occur.