Deconfinement and phase diagram of bosons in a linear optical lattice with a particle reservoir

Abstract

We investigate the zero-temperature phases of bosons in a one-dimensional optical lattice with an explicit tunnel coupling to a Bose condensed particle reservoir. Renormalization group analysis of this system is shown to reveal three phases: one in which the linear system is fully phase-locked to the reservoir; one in which Josephson vortices between the one-dimensional system and the particle reservoir deconfine due to quantum fluctuations, leading to a decoupled state in which the one-dimensional system is metallic; and one in which the one-dimensional system is in a Mott insulating state.

Revised version. Four pages and three figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett