Superfluid-Insulator transitions of bosons on Kagome lattice at non-integer fillings

Abstract

We study the superfluid-insulator transitions of bosons on the Kagome lattice at incommensurate filling factors f=1/2 and 2/3 using a duality analysis. We find that at f=1/2 the bosons will always be in a superfluid phase and demonstrate that the T_3 symmetry of the dual (dice) lattice, which results in dynamic localization of vortices due to the Aharanov-Bohm caging effect, is at the heart of this phenomenon. In contrast, for f=2/3, we find that the bosons exhibit a quantum phase transition between superfluid and translational symmetry broken Mott insulating phases. We discuss the possible broken symmetries of the Mott phase and elaborate the theory of such a transition. Finally we map the boson system to a XXZ spin model in a magnetic field and discuss the properties of this spin model using the obtained results.