Studies of bosons in optical lattices in a harmonic potential

R. Ramakumar, A. N. Das, S. Sil

Published 2006-06-18, updated 2007-02-01Version 2

We present a theoretical study of bose condensation and specific heat of non-interacting bosons in finite lattices in harmonic potentials in one, two, and three dimensions. We numerically diagonalize the Hamiltonian to obtain the energy levels of the systems. Using the energy levels thus obtained, we investigate the temperature dependence, dimensionality effects, lattice size dependence, and evolution to the bulk limit of the condensate fraction and the specific heat. Some preliminary results on the specific heat of fermions in optical lattices are also presented. The results obtained are contextualized within the current experimental and theoretical scenario.