Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in two-component Bose gases on a lattice

Abstract

We explore the stability of the interface between two phase-separated Bose gases in relative motion on a lattice. Gross-Pitaevskii-Bogoliubov theory and the Gutzwiller ansatz are employed to study the short- and long-time stability properties. The underlying lattice introduces effects of discreteness, broken spatial symmetry, and strong correlations, all three of which are seen to have considerable qualitative effects on the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Discreteness is found to stabilize low flow velocities, because of the finite energy associated with displacing the interface. Broken spatial symmetry introduces a dependence not only on the relative flow velocity, but on the absolute velocities. Strong correlations close to a Mott transition will stop the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability from affecting the bulk density and creating turbulence; instead, the instability will excite vortices with Mott-insulator filled cores.