Phase diagram of the asymmetric Hubbard model and an entropic chromatographic method for cooling cold fermions in optical lattices

Abstract

We study the phase diagram of the asymmetric Hubbard model (AHM), which is characterized by different values of the hopping for the two spin projections of a fermion or, equivalently, two different orbitals. This model is expected to provide a good description of a mass-imbalanced cold fermionic mixture in a 3D optical lattice. We use the dynamical mean-field theory to study various physical properties of this system. In particular, we show how orbital-selective physics, observed in multiorbital strongly correlated electron systems, can be realized in such a simple model. We find that the density distribution is a good probe of this orbital-selective crossover from a Fermi-liquid to a non-Fermi-liquid state. Below an ordering temperature T o, which is a function of both the interaction and hopping asymmetry, the system exhibits staggered long-range orbital order. Apart from the special case of the symmetric limit, i.e., Hubbard model, where there is no hopping asymmetry, this orbital order is accompanied by a true charge density wave order for all values of the hopping asymmetry. We calculate the order parameters and various physical quantities including the thermodynamics in both the ordered and disordered phases. We find that the formation of the charge density wave is signaled by an abrupt increase in the sublattice double occupancies. Finally, we propose a new method, entropic chromatography, for cooling fermionic atoms in optical lattices, by exploiting the properties of the AHM. To establish this cooling strategy on a firmer basis, we also discuss the variations in temperature induced by the adiabatic tuning of interactions and hopping parameters. © 2012 American Physical Society.