We use strong-coupling perturbation theory, the variational cluster approach (VCA), and the dynamical density-matrix renormalization group (DDMRG) method to investigate static and dynamical properties of the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model in both the Mott-insulating and superfluid phases. From the von Neumann entanglement entropy we determine the central charge and the transition points for the first two Mott lobes. Our DMRG results for the ground-state energy, momentum distribution function, boson correlation function decay, Mott gap, and single-particle spectral function are reproduced very well by the strong-coupling expansion to fifth order, and by VCA with clusters up to 12 sites as long as the ratio between the hopping amplitude and onsite repulsion, t/U , is smaller than 0.15 and 0.25, respectively. In addition, in the superfluid phase VCA captures well the ground-state energy and the sound velocity of the linear phonon modes. This comparison provides an authoritative estimate for the range of applicability of these methods. In strong-coupling theory for the Mott phase, the dynamical structure factor is obtained from the solution of an effective single-particle problem with an attractive potential. The resulting resonances show up as double-peak structures close to the Brillouin zone boundary. These high-energy features also appear in the superfluid phase which is characterized by a pronounced phonon mode at small momenta and energies, as predicted by Bogoliubov and field theory. In one dimension, there are no traces of an amplitude mode in the dynamical single-particle and two-particle correlation functions.

We employ the (dynamical) density matrix renormalization group technique to investigate the ground-state properties of the Bose-Hubbard model with nearest-neighbor transfer amplitudes t and local two-body and three-body repulsion of strength U and W , respectively. We determine the phase boundaries between the Mott-insulating and superfluid phases for the lowest two Mott lobes from the chemical potentials. We calculate the tips of the Mott lobes from the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid parameter and confirm the positions of the Kosterlitz-Thouless points from the von Neumann entanglement entropy. We find that physical quantities in the second Mott lobe such as the gap and the dynamical structure factor scale almost perfectly in t/(U + W ), even close to the Mott transition. Strong-coupling perturbation theory shows that there is no true scaling but deviations from it are quantitatively small in the strong-coupling limit. This observation should remain true in higher dimensions and for not too large attractive three-body interactions.

We develop a diagrammatic method for the evaluation of general multi-band Gutzwiller wave functions in finite dimensions. Our approach provides a systematic improvement of the widely used Gutzwiller approximation. As a first application we investigate itinerant ferromagnetism and correlation-induced deformations of the Fermi surface for a two-band Hubbard model on a square lattice.

A model system for the injection of fermionic particles from filled source sites into an empty chain is investigated. The ensuing dynamics for Hermitian as well as for non-Hermitian time evolution, where the particles cannot return to the bath sites (quantum ratchet), is studied. A nonhomogeneous hybridization between bath and chain sites permits transient currents in the chain. Non-interacting particles show decoherence in the thermodynamic limit: the average particle number and the average current density in the chain become stationary for long times, whereas the single-particle density matrix displays large fluctuations around its mean value. Using the numerical timedependent density-matrix renormalization group (t -DMRG) method it is demonstrated, on the other hand, that sizable density-density interactions between the particles introduce relaxation which is by orders of magnitudes faster than the decoherence processes.

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