Transport of Strongly Correlated Bosons in an Optical Lattice

The transport of strongly correlated bosons in a three-dimensional optical lattice is studied within the Bose-Hubbard approximation. The transport is induced by a small displacement of the overall harmonic trapping potential. The subsequent relaxation dynamics is monitored by high precision density measurements with the help of scanning electron microscopy. Good agreement with a real space time-dependent Gutzwiller mean-field description is found.