Achim Rosch
Cologne University

"Fermionic atoms in optical lattices:  Mott transition and metastable superconductivity"

Cold fermionic atoms in optical lattices offer not only the possibility to simulate fundamental effects of material physics but also to explore new physical phenomena. The response of a strongly interacting atomar cloud on an adiabatic change of the confining potential can be used to detect the Mott transition. We compare dynamical mean field calculations for the Hubbard model with recent measurements by the Bloch group [1]. We also show theoretically, that the exponentially long life time of doubly occupied states in the strongly repulsive Hubbard model can be used to prepare an exotic finite-momentum s-wave superconducting state [2].

[1] U. Schneider, L. Hackermuller, S. Will, Th. Best, I. Bloch, T. A. Costi, R. W. Helmes, D. Rasch, A. Rosch,  Science  322, 1520 (2008).