Properties of the superfluid in the disordered Bose-Hubbard model

Abstract

We investigate the properties of the superfluid phase in the three-dimensional disordered Bose-Hubbard model using quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The phase diagram is generated using Gaussian disorder on the on-site potential. Comparisons with box and speckle disorder show qualitative similarities leading to the reentrant behavior of the superfluid. Quantitative differences that arise are controlled by the specific shape of the disorder. Statistics pertaining to disorder distributions are studied for a range of interaction strengths and system sizes, where strong finite-size effects are observed. Despite this, both the superfluid fraction and compressibility remain self-averaging throughout the superfluid phase. Close to the superfluid-Bose-glass phase boundary, finite-size effects dominate but still suggest that self-averaging holds. Our results are pertinent to experiments with ultracold atomic gases where a systematic disorder averaging procedure is typically not possible.