Noise and Counting Statistics of Insulating Phases in One-Dimensional Optical Lattices

We discuss the correlation properties of current carrying states of one-dimensional insulators, which could be realized by applying an impulse to atoms loaded onto an optical lattice. While the equilibrium noise has a gapped spectrum, the quantum uncertainty encoded in the amplitudes for the Zener process gives a zero frequency contribution out of equilibrium. We derive a general expression for the generating function of the full counting statistics and find that the particle transport obeys binomial statistics with doubled charge, resulting in super-Poissonian noise that originates from the bosonic nature of particle-hole pairs.