Theory of warm ionized gases: equation of state and kinetic Schottky anomaly.

Based on accurate Lennard-Jones-type interaction potentials, we derive a closed set of state equations for the description of warm atomic gases in the presence of ionization processes. The specific heat is predicted to exhibit peaks in correspondence to single and multiple ionizations. Such kinetic analog in atomic gases of the Schottky anomaly in solids is enhanced at intermediate and low atomic densities. The case of adiabatic compression of noble gases is analyzed in detail and the implications on sonoluminescence are discussed. In particular, the predicted plasma electron density in a sonoluminescent bubble turns out to be in good agreement with the value measured in recent experiments.

Characterizing and quantifying frustration in quantum many-body systems.

We present a general scheme for the study of frustration in quantum systems. We introduce a universal measure of frustration for arbitrary quantum systems and we relate it to a class of entanglement monotones via an exact inequality. If all the (pure) ground states of a given Hamiltonian saturate the inequality, then the system is said to be inequality saturating. We introduce sufficient conditions for a quantum spin system to be inequality saturating and confirm them with extensive numerical tests. These conditions provide a generalization to the quantum domain of the Toulouse criteria for classical frustration-free systems. The models satisfying these conditions can be reasonably identified as geometrically unfrustrated and subject to frustration of purely quantum origin. Our results therefore establish a unified framework for studying the intertwining of geometric and quantum contributions to frustration.

Mixtures of strongly interacting bosons in optical lattices.

We investigate the properties of strongly interacting heteronuclear boson-boson mixtures loaded in realistic optical lattices, with particular emphasis on the physics of interfaces. In particular, we numerically reproduce the recent experimental observation that the addition of a small fraction of 41K induces a significant loss of coherence in 87Rb, providing a simple explanation. We then investigate the robustness against the inhomogeneity typical of realistic experimental realizations of the glassy quantum emulsions recently predicted to occur in strongly interacting boson-boson mixtures on ideal homogeneous lattices.