Cold Atom Optical Lattices as Quantum Analog Simulators for Aperiodic One-Dimensional Localization Without Disorder

TL;DR

This paper proposes using cold atom optical lattices as quantum simulators to study aperiodic localization phenomena, predicting an Anderson-like insulator with mobility edges in a disorder-free 1D system.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to simulate and observe Anderson-like localization and mobility edges in a nearly-periodic optical lattice without disorder.

Findings

Prediction of an Anderson-like insulator with mobility edges

Observation of pinning in center of mass dipole oscillations

Potential experimental detection in optical lattices

Abstract

Cold atom optical lattices allow for the study of quantum localization and mobility edges in a disorder-free environment. We predict the existence of an Anderson-like insulator with sharp mobility edges in a one-dimensional nearly-periodic optical lattice. We show that the mobility edge manifests itself as the early onset of pinning in center of mass dipole oscillations in the presence of a magnetic trap which should be observable in optical lattices.