Bose-Hubbard model with localized particle losses

Department Physik, Technische Universitat Munchen, James-Franck-Str., 85748 Garching, Germany(Dated: June 29, 2012)We consider the Bose-Hubbard model with particle losses at one lattice site. For the non-interacting case, we nd that half of the bosons of an initially homogeneous particle distribution,are not a ected by dissipation that only acts on one lattice site in the center of the lattice. Aphysical interpretation of this result is that the surviving particles interfere destructively when theytunnel to the location of the dissipative defect and therefore never reach it. Furthermore we ndfor a one-dimensional model that a fraction of the particles can propagate across the dissipativedefect even if the rate of tunneling between adjacent lattice sites is much slower than the loss rateat the defect. We analyze the robustness of our ndings with respect to small interactions and smalldeviations from the symmetric setting. A possible experimental realization of our setup is providedby ultracold bosonic atoms in an optical lattice, where an electron beam on a single lattice siteionizes atoms that are then extracted by an electrostatic eld.