2025/01/31 by Xiang-Can Cheng, Zong-Yao Wang, Jinyi Zhang +2 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum many-body systems #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · doi:10.1103/physreva.111.013319
openalex publication_date 2025/01/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The study of the gauge field is an everlasting topic in modern physics. Spin-orbit coupling is a powerful tool in ultracold atomic systems, resulting in an artificial gauge field that can be easily manipulated and observed in a tabletop environment. Combining optical Raman lattices and atom-atom interactions, the artificial gauge field can be made density dependent. In this work we propose a straightforward way to engineer a one-dimensional density-dependent gauge field in a Bose-Hubbard model in spin-orbit-coupled Raman lattices. We study the model from two perspectives: few-body quantum-walk dynamics and the many-body ground state. From the first perspective, we show that large spin-flipped tunneling can lead to a deep two-body bound state. From the second perspective, mean-field and density-matrix renormalization-group calculations consistently reveal three different phases, i.e., the Mott insulator phase, the superfluid phase, and the magnetic superfluid phase. Finally, we discuss the experimental protocol with Raman lattices based on existing experimental platforms.