2005/02/09 by K. Osterloh, M. Baig, L. Santos +2 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.95.010403
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 010403 (2005) · 5 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2005/02/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We demonstrate how to create artificial external non-Abelian gauge potentials acting on cold atoms in optical lattices. The method employs n internal states of atoms and laser assisted state sensitive tunneling. Thus, dynamics are communicated by unitary n× n-matrices. By experimental control of the tunneling parameters, the system can be made truly non-Abelian. We show that single particle dynamics in the case of intense U(2) vector potentials lead to a generalized Hofstadter butterfly spectrum which shows a complex ``moth''-like structure. We discuss the possibility to employ non-Abelian interferometry (Aharonov-Bohm effect) and address methods to realize matter dynamics in specific classes of lattice gauge fields.