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arXiv:2112.08763 · New Journal of Physics

Topological Lifshitz transitions, orbital currents, and interactions in low-dimensional Fermi gases in synthetic gauge fields

Chen-How Huang, Masaki Tezuka, Miguel A. Cazalilla

Published Mar 1, 2022• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Low-dimensional systems of interacting fermions in a synthetic gauge field have been experimentally realized using two-component ultra-cold Fermi gases in optical lattices. Using a two-leg ladder model that is relevant to these experiments, we have studied the signatures of topological Lifshitz transitions and the effects of the inter-species interaction U on the gauge-invariant orbital current in the regime of large intra-leg hopping Ω. Focusing on non-insulating regimes, we have carried out numerically exact density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) calculations to compute the orbital current at fixed particle number as a function of the interaction strength and the synthetic gauge flux per plaquette. Signatures of topological Lifshitz transitions where the number Fermi points changes are found to persist even in the presence of very strong repulsive interactions. This numerical observation suggests that the orbital current can be computed from an appropriately renormalized mean-field band structure, which is also described here. Quantitative agreement between the mean-field and the DMRG results in the intermediate interaction regime where U ≲ Ω is demonstrated. We also have observed that interactions can change the sign of the current susceptibility at zero field and induce Lifshitz transitions between two metallic phases, which is also captured by the mean-field theory. Correlation effects beyond mean-field theory in the oscillations of the local inter-leg current are also reported. We argue that the observed robustness against interactions makes the orbital current a good indicator of the topological Lifshitz transitions.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/ac5a87

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Abstract Low-dimensional systems of interacting fermions in a synthetic gauge field have been experimentally realized using two-component ultra-cold Fermi gases in optical lattices. Using a two-leg ladder model that is relevant to these experiments, we have studied the signatures of topological Lifshitz transitions and the effects of the inter-species interaction U on the gauge-invariant orbital current in the regime of large intra-leg hopping Ω. Focusing on non-insulating regimes, we have carried out numerically exact density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) calculations to compute the orbital current at fixed particle number as a function of the interaction strength and the synthetic gauge flux per plaquette. Signatures of topological Lifshitz transitions where the number Fermi points changes are found to persist even in the presence of very strong repulsive interactions. This numerical observation suggests that the orbital current can be computed from an appropriately renormalized mean-field band structure, which is also described here. Quantitative agreement between the mean-field and the DMRG results in the intermediate interaction regime where U ≲ Ω is demonstrated. We also have observed that interactions can change the sign of the current susceptibility at zero field and induce Lifshitz transitions between two metallic phases, which is also captured by the mean-field theory. Correlation effects beyond mean-field theory in the oscillations of the local inter-leg current are also reported. We argue that the observed robustness against interactions makes the orbital current a good indicator of the topological Lifshitz transitions.
We characterize the Hall response of non-interacting fermionic MMM-leg ladders in the presence of an artificial magnetic flux, that can be realized in one-dimensional optical lattices supplemented with a synthetic dimension. We focus on the Hall imbalance, which can be directly measured in experiments with ultracold fermionic atoms. At relatively large synthetic flux we find a dependence of the density that contrasts with previously reported density-independent behavior. In particular, the Hall imbalance can be significantly enhanced in the limit of small density of particles (or holes), or it can vanish and change sign at specific fluxes, which we obtain analytically in the large inter-leg coupling regime. This behavior is explained in terms of Lifshitz transitions of the band structure, where the number of Fermi points changes as a function of the flux and density. Finally, we explore the connection between these transitions and the so-called Meissner-vortex transition for fermionic ladders by computing the site-resolved leg and rung currents and discussing the similarities and differences with the bosonic counterpart.
We study the \emph{orbital effects} of the synthetic magnetic fields in an interacting square lattice two-leg fermionic ladder model with the number-conserving pair hopping that hosting the Majorana bound states. By utilizing density matrix renormalization group and exact diagonalization, we identify a novel type-II topological Meissner (((\emph{topo}-Meissner))) phase (((as distinguished from the low-field type-I \emph{topo}-Meissner state))) when threading a \emph{high} magnetic flux through the plaquette of the ladder, which not only exhibits a large uniformly circulating chiral current along the legs, the characteristics of the celebrated Meissner state, but also accommodates a topologically protected ground-state manifold due to the \emph{reentrant} emergence of the Majorana end modes. Our work reveals some interesting interference effects resulting from the interplay between the gauge fields and the strong interactions in establishing the intrinsic topological states of matter in low-dimensional quantum systems.
Abstract Synthetic gauge fields in synthetic dimensions are now of great interest. This concept provides a convenient manner for exploring topological phases of matter. Here, we report on the first experimental realization of an atom-optically synthetic gauge field based on the synthetic momentum-state lattice of a Bose gas of 133Cs atoms, where magnetically controlled Feshbach resonance is used to tune the interacting lattice into noninteracting regime. Specifically, we engineer a noninteracting one-dimensional lattice into a two-leg ladder with tunable synthetic gauge fields. We observe the flux-dependent populations of atoms and measure the gauge field-induced chiral currents in the two legs. We also show that an inhomogeneous gauge field could control the atomic transport in the ladder. Our results lay the groundwork for using a clean noninteracting synthetic momentum-state lattice to study the gauge field-induced topological physics.
The realization and detection of topological phases with ultracold atomic gases is at the frontier of current theoretical and experimental research. Here, we identify cold atoms in optical ladders subjected to synthetic magnetic fields as readily realizable bridges between one-dimensional spin-orbit (time-reversal) topological insulators and two-dimensional quantum Hall insulators. We reveal three instances of their promising potential: (i) they realize spin-orbit coupling, with the left-right leg degree of freedom playing the role of an effective spin, (ii) their energy bands and eigenstates exactly reproduce the topological chiral edge modes of two-dimensional Chern insulators, and (iii) they can be tailored to realize a topological phase transition from a trivial to a topological insulating phase. We propose realistic schemes to observe the chiral and topological properties of ladder systems with current optical lattice-based experiments. Our findings open a door to the exploration of the physics of the edges of quantum Hall insulators and to the realization of spin-orbit coupling and topological superfluid phases with ultracold atomic gases.
Ultracold atomic systems have provided an ideal platform to study the physics of strongly interacting many body systems in an unprecedentedly controlled and clean environment. And, since fermions are the building blocks of visible matter, being naturally motivated we focus on the physics of ultracold fermionic systems in this thesis. There have been many recent experimental developments in these systems such as the creation of synthetic gauge fields, realization of dimensional crossover and realization of systems with synthetic dimensions. These developments pose many open theoretical questions, some of which we address in this thesis. We start the discussion by studying the spectral function of an ideal spin-12 Fermi gas in a harmonic trap in any dimensions. We discuss the performance of the local density approximation (LDA) in calculating the spectral function of the system by comparing it to exact numerical results. We show that the LDA gives better results for larger number of particles and in higher dimensions. Fermionic systems with quasi two dimensional geometry are of great importance because of their connections to the high-Tc superconducting cuprate materials. Keeping this in mind, we consider a spin-12 fermionic system in three dimensions interacting with a contact interaction and confined by a one dimensional optical potential in one direction. Using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism, we show that with increasing the depth of the optical potential the three dimensional superfluid evolves into a two dimensional one by looking at the shifts in the radio-frequency spectrum of the system and the change in the binding energy of the pairs that are formed. The next topic of interest is studying the effect of synthetic gauge fields on the ultracold fermionic systems. We show that a synthetic non-Abelian Rashba type gauge field has experimentally observable signatures on the size and shape of a cloud of a system of non-interacting spin-12 Fermi system in a harmonic trap. Also, the synthetic gauge field in conjunction with the harmonic potential gives rise to ample possibilities of generating novel quantum Hamiltonians like the spherical geometry quantum Hall, magnetic monopoles etc. We then address the physics of fermions in “synthetic dimensions”. The hyperfine states of atoms loaded in a one dimensional optical lattice can be used as an extra dimension, called the synthetic dimension (SD), by using Raman coupling. This way a finite strip Hofstadter model is realized with a tunable flux per plaquette. The experimental realization of the SD system is most naturally possible in systems which also have SU(M) symmetric interactions between the fermions. The SU(M) symmetric interactions manifest as long-ranged along the synthetic dimension and is the root cause of all the novel physics in these systems. This rich physics is revealed by a mapping of the Hamiltonian of the system to a system of particles interacting via an SU(M) symmetric interaction under the influence of an SU(M) Zeeman field and a non-Abelian…
Synthetic ladders realized with one-dimensional alkaline-earth(-like) fermionic gases and subject to a gauge field represent a promising environment for the investigation of quantum Hall physics with ultracold atoms. Using density-matrix renormalization group calculations, we study how the quantum Hall-like chiral edge currents are affected by repulsive atom–atom interactions. We relate the properties of such currents to the asymmetry of the spin resolved momentum distribution function, a quantity which is easily addressable in state-of-art experiments. We show that repulsive interactions significantly enhance the chiral currents. Our numerical simulations are performed for atoms with two and three internal spin states.