Ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices : mimicking condensed matter physics and beyond

We review recent developments in the physics of ultracold atomic and molecular gases in optical lattices. Such systems are nearly perfect realisations of various kinds of Hubbard models, and as such may very well serve to mimic condensed matter phenomena. We show how these systems may be employed as...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Lewenstein, Maciej|||0000-0002-0210-7800, Sanpera, A.|||0000-0002-8970-6127, Ahufinger, Verònica|||0000-0002-6628-9930, Damski, Bogdan, Sen(De), Aditi, Sen, Ujjwal
Format: article
Publication Date:2007
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:66278
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/66278
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1080/00018730701223200
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:PREI2008
Description
Summary:We review recent developments in the physics of ultracold atomic and molecular gases in optical lattices. Such systems are nearly perfect realisations of various kinds of Hubbard models, and as such may very well serve to mimic condensed matter phenomena. We show how these systems may be employed as quantum simulators to answer some challenging open questions of condensed matter, and even high energy physics. After a short presentation of the models and the methods of treatment of such systems, we discuss in detail, which challenges of condensed matter physics can be addressed with (i) disordered ultracold lattice gases, (ii) frustrated ultracold gases, (iii) spinor lattice gases, (iv) lattice gases in "artificial" magnetic fields, and, last but not least, (v) quantum information processing in lattice gases. For completeness, also some recent progress related to the above topics with trapped cold gases will be discussed.