Mott-Glass Phase of a One-Dimensional Quantum Fluid with Long-Range Interactions

Area of Science:

• Condensed matter physics
• Quantum mechanics
• Many-body systems

Background:

• Quantum particles with long-range potentials exhibit complex ground-state phases.
• The transition from Coulombic to linear confinement potentials is crucial for understanding these phases.
• Disorder's role in these quantum systems is a key area of investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate ground-state properties of quantum particles with tunable long-range potentials.
• Determine the impact of disorder on the Wigner crystal phase.
• Characterize the emergent phases, such as the Mott glass.

Main Methods:

• Bosonization techniques to map fermionic systems to bosonic ones.
• Nonperturbative functional renormalization group (FRG) for analyzing interacting quantum systems.
• Analysis of ground-state properties including compressibility and conductivity.

Main Results:

• In the absence of disorder, a Wigner crystal forms for potentials with σ ≤ 0.
• Disorder suppresses Wigner crystallization for -3/2 < σ ≤ 0, leading to a Mott glass.
• For σ < -3/2, the Wigner crystal state persists even with disorder.

Conclusions:

• Disorder plays a critical role in determining the ground state of quantum particles with long-range interactions.
• The study identifies a transition from Wigner crystal to Mott glass phases driven by disorder.
• The findings provide insights into quantum phase transitions in disordered systems.