Bose-Einstein condensation and strong-correlation behavior of phonons in ion traps

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Dec 31;93(26 Pt 1):263602. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.263602. Epub 2004 Dec 20.

Abstract

We show that the dynamics of phonons in a set of trapped ions interacting with lasers is described by a Bose-Hubbard model whose parameters can be externally adjusted. We investigate the possibility of observing several quantum many-body phenomena, including Bose-Einstein condensation as well as a superfluid-Mott insulator quantum phase transition.