Quantum Monte Carlo simulation in the canonical ensemble at finite temperature.

A quantum Monte Carlo method with a nonlocal update scheme is presented. The method is based on a path-integral decomposition and a worm operator which is local in imaginary time. It generates states with a fixed number of particles and respects other exact symmetries. Observables like the equal-time Green's function can be evaluated in an efficient way. To demonstrate the versatility of the method, results for the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model and a nuclear pairing model are presented. Within the context of the Bose-Hubbard model the efficiency of the algorithm is discussed.

Composite fermion-boson mapping for fermionic lattice models.

We present a mapping of elementary fermion operators onto a quadratic form of composite fermionic and bosonic cluster operators. The mapping is an exact isomorphism as long as the physical constraint of one composite particle per cluster is satisfied. This condition is treated on average in a composite particle mean-field approach, which consists of an ansatz that decouples the composite fermionic and bosonic sectors. The theory is tested on the 1D and 2D Hubbard models. Using a Bogoliubov determinant for the composite fermions and either a coherent or Bogoliubov state for the bosons, we obtain a simple and accurate procedure for treating the Mott insulating phase of the Hubbard model with mean-field computational cost.

Loop updates for quantum Monte Carlo simulations in the canonical ensemble.

We present a new nonlocal updating scheme for quantum Monte Carlo simulations, which conserves particle number and other symmetries. It allows exact symmetry projection and direct evaluation of the equal-time Green's function and other observables in the canonical ensemble. The method is applicable to a wide variety of systems. We show results for bosonic atoms in optical lattices, neutron pairs in atomic nuclei, and electron pairs in ultrasmall superconducting grains.

Integrative models for asymmetric fermi superfluids: emergence of a new exotic pairing phase.

We introduce an exactly solvable model to study the competition between the Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) and breached-pair superfluid in strongly interacting ultracold asymmetric Fermi gases. One can thus investigate homogeneous and inhomogeneous states on equal footing and establish the quantum phase diagram. For certain values of the filling and the interaction strength, the model exhibits a new stable exotic pairing phase which combines an inhomogeneous state with an interior gap to pair excitations. It is proven that this phase is the exact ground state in the strong-coupling limit, while numerical examples in finite lattices show that also at finite interaction strength it can have lower energy than the breached-pair or LOFF states.

Ultracold atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices approaching the Tonks-Girardeau regime.

Recent experiments on ultracold atomic alkali gases in a one-dimensional optical lattice have demonstrated the transition from a gas of soft-core bosons to a Tonks-Girardeau gas in the hard-core limit, where one-dimensional bosons behave like fermions in many respects. We have studied the underlying many-body physics through numerical simulations which accommodate both the soft-core and hard-core limits in one single framework. We find that the Tonks-Girardeau gas is reached only at the strongest optical lattice potentials. Results for slightly higher densities, where the gas develops a Mott-like phase already at weaker optical lattice potentials, show that these Mott-like short-range correlations do not enhance the convergence to the hard-core limit.