2014/03/31 by Arkadiusz Kosior, Krzysztof Sacha · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.quant-gas
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/107/26006
published as EPL 107 (2014) 26006 · 6 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in EPL
openalex publication_date 2014/07/01 · arxiv created 2014/07/14 · arxiv updated 2014/07/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We show that non-Abelian lattice gauge fields can be simulated with a single-component ultra-cold atomic gas in an optical-lattice potential. An optical lattice can be viewed as a Bravais lattice with a N -point basis. An atom located at different points of the basis can be considered as a particle in different internal states. The appropriate engineering of tunneling amplitudes of atoms in an optical lattice allows one to realize U( N ) gauge potentials and control a mass of particles that experience such non-Abelian gauge fields. We provide and analyze a concrete example of an optical-lattice configuration that allows for simulation of a static U(2) gauge model with a constant Wilson loop and an adjustable mass of particles . In particular, we observe that the non-zero mass creates large conductive gaps in the energy spectrum, which could be important in the experimental detection of the transverse Hall conductivity.