Supervisor: Jan Arlt

Many important phenomena in solid state physics rely on the complex structure and interactions in a lattice structure.

In this colloquium I will shed some light on how physicists try to use Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) as quantum simulators of the phase transitions in these systems. I will explain how it is possible to include both contact interactions and long-range interactions such as the dipole-dipole interaction in such simulations. Furthermore I will show how it is possible to tune the scattering length of the contact interaction via Feshbach resonances such that the long-range interaction is more dominant.

With the dipole-dipole interaction included in a BEC it is in particular possible to investigate phenomena such as the phase transition between superfluid and insulation states. This is how BECs are used as quantum simulators of complex lattice structures.