Browsing by Author "Rey, Ana Maria"

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    Effective many-body parameters for atoms in nonseparable Gaussian optical potentials
    (American Physical Society, 2015) Wall, Michael L.; Hazzard, Kaden R.A.; Rey, Ana Maria; Rice Center for Quantum Materials
    We analyze the properties of particles trapped in three-dimensional potentials formed from superimposed Gaussian beams, fully taking into account effects of potential anharmonicity and nonseparability. Although these effects are negligible in more conventional optical lattice experiments, they are essential for emerging ultracold-atom developments. We focus in particular on two potentials utilized in current ultracold-atom experiments: arrays of tightly focused optical tweezers and a one-dimensional optical lattice with transverse Gaussian confinement and highly excited transverse modes. Our main numerical tools are discrete variable representations (DVRs), which combine many favorable features of spectral and grid-based methods, such as the computational advantage of exponential convergence and the convenience of an analytical representation of Hamiltonian matrix elements. Optimizations, such as symmetry adaptations and variational methods built on top of DVR methods, are presented and their convergence properties discussed. We also present a quantitative analysis of the degree of nonseparability of eigenstates, borrowing ideas from the theory of matrix product states, leading to both conceptual and computational gains. Beyond developing numerical methodologies, we present results for construction of optimally localized Wannier functions and tunneling and interaction matrix elements in optical lattices and tweezers relevant for constructing effective models for many-body physics.
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    Synthetic-gauge-field stabilization of the chiral-spin-liquid phase
    (American Physical Society, 2016) Chen, Gang; Hazzard, Kaden R.A.; Rey, Ana Maria; Hermele, Michael; Rice Center for Quantum Materials
    We explore the phase diagram of the SU(N) Hubbard models describing fermionic alkaline-earth-metal atoms in a square optical lattice with, on average, one atom per site, using a slave rotor mean-field approach. We find that the chiral spin liquid (CSL) predicted for N≥5 and large interactions passes through a fractionalized state with a spinon Fermi surface as interactions are decreased before transitioning to a weakly interacting metal. We show that by adding a uniform artificial gauge field with 2π/N flux per plaquette, the CSL becomes the ground state for all N≥3 at intermediate interactions, persists to weaker interactions, and exhibits a larger spin gap. For N≥5 we find the CSL is the ground state everywhere the system is a Mott insulator. The gauge field stabilization of the CSL at lower interactions, and thus at weaker lattice depths, together with the increased spin gap, can relax the temperature constraints required for its experimental realization in ultracold atom systems.