Superfluid-Insulator Transition in a Commensurate One-Dimensional Bosonic System with Off-Diagonal Disorder

K Balabanyan, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Nikolai Prokof'ev, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Boris Svistunov, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Article comments

This is the pre-published version harvested from ArXiv. The published version is located at http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v95/i5/e055701

Abstract

We study the nature of the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition in a one-dimensional system of lattice bosons with off-diagonal disorder in the limit of a large integer filling factor. Monte Carlo simulations of two strongly disordered models show that the universality class of the transition in question is the same as that of the superfluid-Mott-insulator transition in a pure system. This result can be explained by disorder self-averaging in the superfluid phase and the applicability of the standard quantum hydrodynamic action. We also formulate the necessary conditions which should be satisfied by the stong-randomness universality class, if one exists.