Properties of the superfluid in the disordered Bose-Hubbard model

Abstract

We investigate the properties of the superfluid phase in the three-dimensional disordered Bose-Hubbard model using Quantum Monte-Carlo simulations. The phase diagram is generated using Gaussian disorder on the on-site potential. Comparisons with box and speckle disorder show qualitative similarities leading to the re-entrant behavior of the superfluid. Quantitative differences that arise are controlled by the specific shape of the disorder. Statistics pertaining to disorder distributions are studied for a range of interaction strengths and system sizes, where strong finite-size effects are observed. Despite this, both the superfluid fraction and compressibility remain self-averaging throughout the superfluid phase. Close to the superfluid-Bose-glass phase boundary, finite-size effects dominate but still suggest that self-averaging holds. Our results are pertinent to experiments with ultracold atomic gases where a systematic disorder averaging procedure is typically not possible.