Ultracold Fermions in a Cavity-Induced Artificial Magnetic Field

2015/02/06 by Corinna Kollath, Ameneh Sheikhan, Ferdinand Brennecke +1 · 104 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Fermion #Field (mathematics) #Magnetic field #Physics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #cond-mat.quant-gas #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.116.060401

published in Physical Review Letters 116(6), 060401 (American Physical Society) · 4 figures

arxiv created 2015/02/06 · openalex publication_date 2016/02/12 · arxiv updated 2016/02/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We propose how a fermionic quantum gas confined to an optical lattice and coupled to an optical cavity can self-organize into a state where the spontaneously emerging cavity field amplitude induces an artificial magnetic field. The fermions form either a chiral insulator or a chiral liquid carrying chiral currents. The feedback mechanism via the dynamical cavity field enables robust and fast switching in time of the chiral phases, and the cavity output can be employed for a direct nondestructive measurement of the chiral current.

Citations

• Cold atoms in cavity-generated dynamical optical potentials
• Ultracold atoms in optical lattices generated by quantized light fields
• Realization of the Hofstadter Hamiltonian with Ultracold Atoms in Optical Lattices
• Diamagnetism of doped two-leg ladders and probing the nature of their commensurate phases
• Measuring the Chern number of Hofstadter bands with ultracold bosonic atoms
• Self-organization of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity
• Berry phase effects on electronic properties

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