Anderson transition in ultracold atoms: Signatures and experimental feasibility

Abstract

Kicked rotators with certain nonanalytic potentials avoid dynamical localization and undergo a metal-insulator transition. We show that typical properties of this transition are still present as the nonanalyticity is progressively smoothed out provided that the smoothing is less than a certain limiting value. We have identified a smoothing-dependent time scale such that full dynamical localization is absent and the quantum momentum distribution develops power-law tails with anomalous decay exponents as in the case of a conductor at the metal-insulator transition. We discuss under what conditions these findings may be verified experimentally by using ultracold atom techniques. It is found that ultracold atoms can indeed be utilized for the experimental investigation of the metal-insulator transition. © 2006 The American Physical Society.