One-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model with local three-body interactions

Abstract: 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.