Bosonic Mott transition and cold atoms

The third lecture (May 19) was devoted to the simplest case in which repulsive interactions induce a transition between itinerant and localized states in an extended system: the bosonic Hubbard model and Mott's superfluid-insulator transition. Applications of this model to ultra-cold bosonic atoms trapped in an optical lattice were briefly presented, as was the experimental observation of this transition in this context. Matthias Troyer (ETH-Zurich) gave a seminar in conjunction with this lecture, on: "Superfluidity near the Mott transition of cold bosonic atom: validating a quantum simulator".