Mean field dynamics of superfluid-insulator phase transition in a gas of ultra cold atoms

TL;DR

This paper uses large-scale dynamical simulations with a mean field approach to study the superfluid-insulator transition in ultra cold atomic gases, revealing localized excitations during the transition.

Contribution

It applies the time-dependent Gutzwiller mean field method to simulate the transition, capturing experimental details and showing localized excitations during the phase change.

Findings

Transition occurs with localized excitations in the trap.

Simulation aligns with experimental observations.

Significant system excitation during the transition.

Abstract

A large scale dynamical simulation of the superfluid to Mott insulator transition in the gas of ultra cold atoms placed in an optical lattice is performed using the time dependent Gutzwiller mean field approach. This approximate treatment allows us to take into account most of the details of the recent experiment [Nature 415, 39 (2002)] where by changing the depth of the lattice potential an adiabatic transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator state has been reported. Our simulations reveal a significant excitation of the system with a transition to insulator in restricted regions of the trap.