Cluster mean-field study of spinor Bose–Hubbard ladder: Ground-state phase diagram and many-body population dynamics*

Abstract

We present a cluster mean-field study for ground-state phase diagram and many-body dynamics of spin-1 bosons confined in a two-chain Bose–Hubbard ladder (BHL). For unbiased BHL, we find superfluid (SF) phase and integer filling Mott insulator (IntMI) phase. For biased BHL, in addition to the SF and IntMI phases, there appears half-integer filling Mott insulator (HIntMI) phase. The phase transition between the SF and IntMI phases can be first order at a part of phase boundaries, while the phase transition between the SF and HIntMI phases is always second order. By tuning the bias energy, we report on the change of the nature of SF–MI phase transitions. Furthermore, we study the effect of the spin-dependent interaction on the many-body population dynamics. The spin-dependent interaction can lead to rich dynamical behaviors, but does not influence the particle transfer efficiency. Our results indicate a way to tune the nature of the SF–MI phase transition and open a new avenue to study the many-body dynamics of spinor bosons in optical lattices.