Spin dynamics for bosons in an optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates the spin dynamics of bosonic atoms in optical lattices, exploring how their internal states evolve and can be manipulated for quantum computation, especially in the Mott insulator regime.

Contribution

It characterizes the spin interactions in bosonic optical lattices and discusses their potential for quantum computation when atom number per site is uncertain.

Findings

Spin interactions can be tuned via lattice properties and magnetic fields.

Bosons in Mott insulators behave as localized spins with controllable Hamiltonians.

Potential application in quantum computation with uncertain atom numbers.

Abstract

We study the internal dynamics of bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. Within the regime in which the atomic crystal is a Mott insulator with one atom per well, the atoms behave as localized spins which interact according to some spin Hamiltonian. The type of Hamiltonian (Heisenberg, Ising), and the sign of interactions may be tuned by changing the properties of the optical lattice, or applying external magnetic fields. When, on the other hand, the number of atoms per lattice site is unknown, we can still use the bosons to perform general quantum computation.