Role of Bandwidths and Energy Gap in Formation of Ground State of Ultra-Cold Bosons in Artificial Magnetic Fields

We study the properties of ultra-cold bosons in optical lattice in arbitrary gauge potentials. Using quantum rotor approach we are able to go beyond mean-field approximation thus taking into account subtleties of the band structure of the artificial magnetic field. This allows us to elucidate the interplay of the subbands widths and energy gaps on the formation of the coherent state. As a result, we are able to pinpoint the elements of the band structure, which are crucial to proper theoretical description of the synthetic magnetic field in a lattice bosonic system. This leads us finally to a method of approximation of the Hofstadter butterfly spectrum with a simpler band structure and use it to investigate the ground state of the system for a wide range of magnetic fluxes.