We propose a Floquet-engineered cold atom realization of a parity anomaly inspired anomalous Hall staircase in a two dimensional
π-flux lattice. The effective model hosts massive Dirac fermions generated by the combined action of a time reversal symmetry breaking Floquet mass and a static inversion breaking mass offset. An additional momentum dependent scalar displacement term shifts different Dirac sectors in opposite energy directions without modifying their Bloch eigenvectors. As a result, the Berry curvature contribution associated with individual massive Dirac sectors can be selectively occupied, allowing the anomalous Hall response to evolve stepwise as a function of chemical potential or scalar displacement term. Evaluating the full lattice Berry curvature integral, we find plateau-like responses near
0,
e2/2h, and
e2/h, corresponding respectively to the activation of zero, one, and two effective massive Dirac sector contributions. We analyze the associated low energy Dirac theory, band topology, Berry curvature structure, and two parameter response maps, and discuss a possible realization using Raman-assisted tunneling, off-resonant Floquet driving, and auxiliary AC-Stark dressing in ultracold atomic optical lattices.
We propose the experimental realization of (3+1) relativistic Dirac fermions using ultracold atoms in a rotating optical lattice or, alternatively, in a synthetic magnetic field. This approach has the advantage to give mass to the Dirac fermions by coupling the ultracold atoms to a Bragg pulse. A dimensional crossover from (3+1) to (2+1) Dirac fermions can be obtained by varying the anisotropy of the lattice. We also discuss under which conditions the interatomic potentials give rise to relativistically invariant interactions among the Dirac fermions.