Microscopic physics of quantum self-organisation of optical lattices in cavities

Abstract

We study quantum particles at zero temperature in an optical lattice coupled to a resonant cavity mode. The cavity field substantially modifies the particle dynamics in the lattice, and for strong particle-field coupling leads to a quantum phase with only every second site occupied. We study the growth of this new order out of a homogeneous initial distribution for few particles as the microscopic physics underlying a quantum phase transition. Simulations reveal that the growth dynamics crucially depends on the initial quantum many-body state of the particles and can be monitored via the cavity fluorescence. Studying the relaxation time of the ordering reveals inhibited tunnelling, which indicates that the effective mass of the particles is increased by the interaction with the cavity field. However, the relaxation becomes very quick for large coupling.