Hyperfine spectra of trapped bosons in optical lattices

Abstract

We calculate the interaction induced inhomogeneous broadening of spectral lines in a trapped Bose gas as a function of the depth of a three-dimensional cubic optical lattice. As observed in recent experiments, we find that the terraced "wedding-cake" structure of Mott plateaus splits the spectrum into a series of discrete peaks. The spectra are extremely sensitive to density corrugations and trap anharmonicities. For example, even when the majority of the cloud is superfluid the spectrum displays discrete peaks.