Quantum dynamics of lattice states with compact support in an extended Bose-Hubbard model

Abstract

We study the dynamical properties, with special emphasis on mobility, of quantum lattice compactons (QLCs) in a one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model extended with pair-correlated hopping. These are quantum counterparts of classical lattice compactons (localized solutions with exact zero amplitude outside a given region) of an extended discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which can be derived in the classical limit from the extended Bose-Hubbard model. While an exact one-site QLC eigenstate corresponds to a classical one-site compacton, the compact support of classical several-site compactons is destroyed by quantum fluctuations. We show that it is possible to reproduce the stability exchange regions of the one-site and two-site localized solutions in the classical model with properly chosen quantum states. Quantum dynamical simulations are performed for two different types of initial conditions: "localized ground states" which are localized wave packets built from superpositions of compactonlike eigenstates, and SU(4) coherent states corresponding to classical two-site compactons. Clear signatures of the mobility of classical lattice compactons are seen, but this crucially depends on the magnitude of the applied phase gradient. For small phase gradients, which classically correspond to a slow coherent motion, the quantum time scale is of the same order as the time scale of the translational motion, and the classical mobility is therefore destroyed by quantum fluctuations. For a large phase instead, corresponding to fast classical motion, the time scales separate so that a mobile, localized, coherent quantum state can be translated many sites for particle numbers already of the order of 10. © 2013 American Physical Society.