Meissner to vortex phase transition in a two-leg ladder in artificial gauge field

Abstract : We consider a two-leg boson ladder in artificial gauge field with hard-core intraleg and negligible interleg interactions. Using numerical simulations based on the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm, combined with a bosonization approach, we study its commensurate-incommensurate transition to a vortex phase at a critical flux. We discuss the finite-size scaling behavior of the longitudinal current near the transition. For weak interchain bo-son hopping, the finite size scaling is in agreement with the predictions from bosonization.