2020/05/31 by C. Repellin, J. Léonard, N. Goldman · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.quant-gas #cond-mat.str-el #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.102.063316
published as Phys. Rev. A 102, 063316 (2020) · 13 pages, 11 figures; extended version accepted for publication
arxiv created 2020/12/18 · arxiv updated 2020/12/21
Realizing strongly-correlated topological phases of ultracold gases is a central goal for ongoing experiments. And while fractional quantum Hall states could soon be implemented in small atomic ensembles, detecting their signatures in few-particle settings remains a fundamental challenge. In this work, we numerically analyze the center-of-mass Hall drift of a small ensemble of hardcore bosons, initially prepared in the ground state of the Harper-Hofstadter-Hubbard model in a box potential. By monitoring the Hall drift upon release, for a wide range of magnetic flux values, we identify an emergent Hall plateau compatible with a fractional Chern insulator state: the extracted Hall conductivity approaches a fractional value determined by the many-body Chern number, while the width of the plateau agrees with the spectral and topological properties of the prepared ground state. Besides, a direct application of Streda's formula indicates that such Hall plateaus can also be directly obtained from static density-profile measurements. Our calculations suggest that fractional Chern insulators can be detected in cold-atom experiments, using available detection methods.