Is it possible to observe experimentally a metal-insulator transition in ultra cold atoms?

Abstract

Kicked rotors with certain non-analytic potentials avoid dynamical localization and undergo a metal-insulator transition. We show that typical properties of this transition are still present as the non-analyticity is progressively smoothed out provided that the smoothing is less than a certain limiting value. We have identified a smoothing dependent time scale such that full dynamical localization is absent and the quantum momentum distribution develops power-law tails with anomalous decay exponents as in the case of a conductor at the metal-insulator transition. We discuss under what conditions these findings may be verified experimentally by using ultra cold atoms techniques. It is found that ultra-cold atoms can indeed be utilized for the experimental investigation of the metal-insulator transition.

arXiv comment7 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Phase diagram of the Anderson transition with atomic matter waves
• Effect of trap anharmonicity on a free-oscillation atom interferometer
• Classical and quantum anomalous diffusion in a system of 2$\delta$-kicked Quantum Rotors
• Critical behavior of Anderson transitions in higher dimensional Bogoliubov-de Gennes symmetry classes