Mott-Hubbard transition of bosons in optical lattices with three-body interactions

Abstract

In this paper, the quantum phase transition between the superfluid state and the Mott-insulator state is studied based on an extended Bose-Hubbard model with two- and three-body on-site interactions. By employing the mean-field approximation we find the extension of the insulating ``lobes'' and the existence of a fixed point in three-dimensional phase space. We investigate the link between experimental parameters and theoretical variables. The possibility to observe our results through some experimental effects in optically trapped Bose-Einstein condensates is also discussed.