Controlling ultracold atoms in multi-band optical lattices for simulation of Kondo physics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how ultracold atoms in multi-band optical lattices can be precisely controlled using Raman pulses to simulate Kondo physics, revealing phase transitions in a bosonic Kondo-Hubbard model.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control ultracold atoms in multi-band lattices for simulating Kondo physics and analyzes the phase transition in the bosonic Kondo-Hubbard model.

Findings

Observation of a phase transition from ferromagnetic superfluid to Kondo-insulator.

Use of mean-field approximation to solve the bosonic Kondo-Hubbard model.

System described by a spin-dependent Kondo-Hubbard lattice model.

Abstract

We show that ultracold atoms can be controlled in multi-band optical lattices through spatially periodic Raman pulses for investigation of a class of strongly correlated physics related to the Kondo problem. The underlying dynamics of this system is described by a spin-dependent fermionic or bosonic Kondo-Hubbard lattice model even if we have only spin-independent atomic collision interaction. We solve the bosonic Kondo-Hubbard lattice model through a mean-field approximation, and the result shows a clear phase transition from the ferromagnetic superfluid to the Kondo-signet insulator at the integer filling.