Field-induced chirality in a frustrated quantum spin ladder

Mahdi Zarea

Arjo Dasgupta, Mateusz Łącki, Henning Korbmacher +3 more

Dipoles in triangular optical ladders constitute a flexible platform for the study of the interplay between geometric frustration and long-range anisotropic interactions, and in particular for the observation of the spontaneous onset of chirality. Frustration magnifies the effect of the dipolar interactions in itinerant polarized dipolar bosons. As a result, the dipole-induced transition between a chiral superfluid and a nonchiral two-component superfluid may be observed for current state-of-the-art temperatures even for the weak intersite interaction characterizing magnetic atoms in standard optical lattices. On the other hand, pinned spin- 1 / 2 dipoles, which we discuss in the context of polar molecules in two rotational states, realize frustrated dipolar XXZ spin models. By controlling the external electric field strength and orientation, these systems can explore a rich ground-state landscape including chiral and nematic phases, as well as intriguing chiral dynamics.

Hamed Rezania, Sounya Jesri

Catalin-Mihai Halati, Thierry Giamarchi

We consider interacting bosonic particles on a two-leg triangular ladder in the presence of an artificial gauge field. We employ density matrix renormalization group numerical simulations and analytical bosonization calculations to study the rich phase diagram of this system. We show that the interplay between the frustration induced by the triangular lattice geometry and the interactions gives rise to multiple chiral quantum phases. Phase transitions between superfluid to Mott-insulating states occur, which can have Meissner or vortex character. Furthermore, a state that explicitly breaks the symmetry between the two legs of the ladder, the biased chiral superfluid, is found for values of the flux close to $\ensuremath{\pi}$. In the regime of hard-core bosons, we show that the extension of the bond order insulator beyond the case of the fully frustrated ladder exhibits Meissner-type chiral currents. We discuss the consequences of our findings for experiments in cold atomic systems.

Domantas Burba, Giedrius Žlabys, Dzmitry Viarbitski +2 more

We propose a concrete realization of a triangular ladder for ultracold atoms, which simultaneously hosts geometric frustration and unusual two-body interactions, and in particular controllable pair hopping and density-induced tunneling. This is done by means of a spin-dependent Kronig-Penney lattice created using a spatially-dependent tripod-type atom-light coupling. We apply density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations to derive the quantum phase diagram. We find that pair tunneling stabilizes a robust pair superfluid, characterized by power-law decay of pair correlations. Additionally, a chiral superfluid arises from frustration induced by competing nearest neighbor (NN) and next-nearest neighbor (NNN) tunnelings. Finally, in the high barrier regime, we map our system onto the XXZ spin model and find the exact phase transition points.

S. J. Gibson