Two-step condensation of lattice bosons

We present a theoretical study of Bose-Einstein condensation in highly anisotropic harmonic traps. The bosons are considered to be moving in an optical lattice in an overall anisotropic harmonic confining potential. We find that two-step condensation occurs for lattice bosons at much reduced harmonic potential anisotropy when compared to the case of an ideal Bose gas in an anisotropic harmonic confinement. We also show that when the bosons are in an isotropic harmonic confinement but with highly anisotropic hopping in the optical lattice, two-step condensation does not occur. We interpret some of our results using single boson density of energy states corresponding to the potentials faced by the bosons.