Exploring complex phenomena using ultracold atoms in bichromatic lattices

Abstract

With an underlying common theme of competing length scales, we study the many-body Schrödinger equation in a quasiperiodic potential and discuss its connection with the Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) problem of classical mechanics. We propose a possible visualization of such connection in experimentally accessible many-body observables. Those observables are useful probes for the three characteristic phases of the problem: the metallic, Anderson and band insulator phases. In addition, they exhibit fingerprints of nonlinear phenomena such as bifurcations and devil's staircases. Our numerical treatment is complemented with a perturbative analysis which provides insight on the underlying physics. The perturbation theory approach is particularly useful in illuminating the distinction between the Anderson insulator and the band insulator phases in terms of paired sets of dimerized states.