Quantum fluctuations beyond the Gutzwiller approximation in the Bose-Hubbard model

TL;DR

This paper advances the understanding of the Bose-Hubbard model by incorporating quantum fluctuations beyond the Gutzwiller mean-field approximation, enabling analysis of higher excitation modes and more accurate physical quantities.

Contribution

It develops a quantum description of collective excitations in the Bose-Hubbard model beyond mean-field, including higher modes like the Higgs, and calculates key physical quantities.

Findings

Identification of higher excitation branches including the Higgs mode

Calculation of condensate depletion and superfluid fraction

Extension of Bogoliubov approach to strongly interacting regimes

Abstract

Taking inspiration from the state-of-the art knowledge of the Bose-Hubbard (BH) model and recent methodological developments in its fermionic counterpart, this work deals with the study of the collective dynamics of a lattice Bose gas beyond the mean-field picture through a quantum description of its elementary excitations. The Hamiltonian quantization, performed via a Bogoliubov quadratization of the BH action within the Gutzwiller approach, allows to expand the effective action of the theory up to second order in the fluctuations around the mean-field solution, as well as to prefigure the possibility of identifying the main decay vertices of the collective modes and other effects that are not evident at the second-order level. This quantum description extends the standard Bogoliubov approach to the study of superfluid Bose systems for comprising higher excitation branches, including the Higgs mode in the superfluid phase, and identifies their physical meaning together with appropriate observables which could be taken into consideration for their experimental characterization. The ultimate aim of the quantization procedure is the determination of fundamental quantities as the depletion of the condensate and the effective superfluid fraction, which are not accessible by a mean-field description or not completely characterized in the regime of strong interactions.