arXiv:1403.7979 · Physical Review A
U(3) artificial gauge fields for cold atoms
Yuxin Hu, Christian Miniatura, David Wilkowski, Benoît Grémaud
Abstract
We propose to generate an artificial non-Abelian U(3) gauge field by using a two-tripod scheme, namely, two tripod configurations sharing a common ground-state level and driven by resonant one-photon transitions. Using an appropriate combination of four Laguerre-Gauss and two Hermite-Gauss laser beams, we are able to produce a U(3) monopole and a U(3) spin-orbit coupling for both alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal atoms. This two-tripod scheme could open the way to the study of interacting spinor condensates subjected to U(3) monopoles.