Interacting Fermi gases in disordered one-dimensional lattices
Date
2006
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
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Source Title
Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
Print ISSN
1098-0121
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
The American Physical Society
Volume
73
Issue
16
Pages
161103-1 - 161103-4
Language
English
Type
Journal Title
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Abstract
Interacting two-component Fermi gases loaded in a one-dimensional (1D) lattice and subject to harmonic trapping exhibit intriguing compound phases in which fluid regions coexist with local Mott-insulator and/or band-insulator regions. Motivated by experiments on cold atoms inside disordered optical lattices, we present a theoretical study of the effects of a random potential on these ground-state phases. Within a density-functional scheme we show that disorder has two main effects: (i) it destroys the local insulating regions if it is sufficiently strong compared with the on-site atom-atom repulsion, and (ii) it induces an anomaly in the compressibility at low density from quenching of percolation. © 2006 The American Physical Society.