Dynamics of Hubbard Hamiltonians with the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for indistinguishable particles

Abstract

We apply the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for indistinguishable particles (MCTDH-X) to systems of bosons or fermions in lattices described by Hubbard type Hamiltonians with long-range or short-range interparticle interactions. The wavefunction is expanded in a variationally optimized time-dependent many-body basis generated by a set of effective creation operators that are related to the original particle creation operators by a time-dependent unitary transform. We use the time-dependent variational principle for the coefficients of this transform as well as the expansion coefficients of the wavefunction in the time-dependent many-body basis as variational parameters to derive equations of motion. The convergence of MCTDH-X is shown by comparing its results to the exact diagonalization of one-, two-, and three-dimensional lattices filled with bosons with contact interactions. We use MCTDH-X to study the buildup of correlations in the long-time splitting dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate loaded into a large two-dimensional lattice subject to a barrier that is ramped up in the center. We find that the system is split into two parts with emergent time-dependent correlations that depend on the ramping time -- for most barrier-raising-times the system becomes two-fold fragmented, but for some of the very fast ramps, the system shows revivals of coherence.