1. Introduce the basic concepts of single-particle dispersion in a lattice. 2. Introduce maximally localized Wannier wave functions and their importance in constructing interacting models. 3. Introduce the basic idea of quantum simulation. 4. Introduce the Dirac point in the honeycomb lattice and the concept of a semimetal. 5. Illustrate the Dirac and the Weyl points as topological defects in the momentum space. 6. Introduce the concept of the symmetry protection for the topological stability of the Dirac point. 7. Introduce the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and the concept of symmetry-protected topology. 8. Introduce the Haldane model and the topological phase transition in the Haldane model. 9. Summarize the common mathematical structures between topological characters of a band theory and topological excitation in a Bose condensate. 10. Discuss the physical consequences of topological invariants for a band insulator in both near-equilibrium transport and the far-from-equilibrium quench dynamics. 11. Discuss the equivalence between neural atoms in a moving lattice and charged particles in an electric field. 12. Introduce the Floquet theory and the Floquet effective Hamiltonian from thehigh-frequency expansion. 13. Discuss various applications of periodical-driven optical lattices. 14. Introduce the Hamiltonian for atom-cavity system and highlight the role of the Langevin force term. 15. Introduce the superradiant quantum phase transition of a Bose condensate coupled to cavity light.
Introduce the basic concepts of single-particle dispersion in a lattice. 2. Introduce maximally localized Wannier wave functions and their importance in constructing interacting models. 3. Introduce the basic idea of quantum simulation. 4. Introduce the Dirac point in the honeycomb lattice and the concept of a semimetal. 5. Illustrate the Dirac and the Weyl points as topological defects in the momentum space. 6. Introduce the concept of the symmetry protection for the topological stability of the Dirac point. 7. Introduce the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and the concept of symmetry-protected topology. 8. Introduce the Haldane model and the topological phase transition in the Haldane model. 9. Summarize the common mathematical structures between topological characters of a band theory and topological excitation in a Bose condensate. 10. Discuss the physical consequences of topological invariants for a band insulator in both near-equilibrium transport and the far-from-equilibrium quench dynamics. 11. Discuss the equivalence between neural atoms in a moving lattice and charged particles in an electric field. 12. Introduce the Floquet theory and the Floquet effective Hamiltonian from thehigh-frequency expansion. 13. Discuss various applications of periodical-driven optical lattices. 14. Introduce the Hamiltonian for atom-cavity system and highlight the role of the Langevin force term. 15. Introduce the superradiant quantum phase transition of a Bose condensate coupled to cavity light.
Topological insulators and superconductors are subsets of (almost) noninteracting symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases. More generally, SPT phases represent equivalence classes of (equilibrium) gapped quantum states with short-range entanglement that are protected by certain symmetries. Two quantum states are “equivalent” if they can be adiabatically deformed into one another without closing the bulk gap. Thus, quantum states belonging to different SPT phases cannot be smoothly deformed into each other without a phase transition, as long as the underlying symmetry is preserved. However, upon removing the symmetry all SPT states can be adiabatically deformed to a trivial product state (e.g., an atomic insulator) without undergoing a phase transition. In this chapter, we generalize our discussion of (almost) noninteracting topological states by removing some of the explicit and implicit constraints underlying the classification and properties of topological insulators and superconductors discussed in Chapter 3 . In Section 4.1 , we enlarge the type of symmetries that protect the topological phases by supplementing internal symmetries (e.g., time-reversal and particle-hole symmetries) with crystalline symmetries (e.g., mirror and rotation symmetries) and discuss topological crystalline insulators and superconductors , a subsets of SPT phases protected by internal and crystalline symmetries. In Section 4.2 , we remove the requirement of having a finite (bulk) gap and discuss Weyl semimetals – crystalline systems characterized by topologically protected bulk band degeneracy points separated in momentum space, which support low energy excitations that are massless chiral fermions, i.e., Weyl fermions. Finally, in Section 4.3 , we remove the condition of thermodynamic equilibrium and consider topological quantum states in periodically driven systems, focusing on the so-called Floquet topological insulators , which exhibit a richer topological structure than their static counterparts. We note that aspects regarding the effects of particle-particle interactions, including the emergence of topological order in systems with long-range entanglement, will be addressed in Chapter 5 . We also point out that the areas summarized in this chapter have grown tremendously in recent years and continue to grow; even a brief mentioning of all recent developments would be impossible within the constraints of a book chapter. Instead, we point out the key elements that determine the nontrivial topology of the quantum systems mentioned above, discuss specific manifestations of their topological properties (e.g., the presence of protected gapless states), and provide representative examples.
1. Introduce soliton in quasi-one-dimensional time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. 2. Introduce the basic idea of topology and the homotopy groups. 3. Introduce vortex in spinless condensate as a typical example of topological defect. 4. Introduce the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition as a topological defect driven phase transition, and emphasize the topological and energy requirements for such a transition. 5. Discuss the geometric configuration that minimizes the energy of a vortex lattice. 6. Introduce the Majorana stellar representation as a useful tool to visualise the symmetry of a high-spin wave function. 7. Introduce two different phases of spin-1 condensate. 8. Introduce the relation between a mean-field state and the singlet pair condensate. 9. Introduce spin vortex and half vortex in spinor condensate, and discuss various possibilities of spin vortex core. 10. Introduce two categories of topological excitations in a Bose condensate, and introduce monopole and skyrmion as the typical example of each category. 11. Introduce simulating Dirac monopole in synthetic magnetic field. 12. Discuss the symmetry of the Hamiltonian and the symmetry of various phases in a spin-orbit coupled BEC. 13. Discuss the relation between symmetry and phase transitions, using spin-orbit coupled condensate as an example. 14. Discuss the Galilean invariance and the superfluid critical velocity.
The classification of distinct phases of matter is a central theme in condensed matter physics. A phase of matter can be viewed as an equivalence class of physical states that share a certain set of properties. In the case of topological quantum matter, these properties are associated with topological invariants that take specific values for each equivalence class. Perturbing a gapped state that corresponds to a given topological phase (i.e., smoothly deforming the Hamiltonian of the system) does not affect the topological invariant, as long as the bulk energy gap remains finite. The value of this invariant changes only if the system undergoes a quantum phase transition, which is signaled by the collapse of the gap. Full topological protection can only emerge in interacting systems and requires the presence of long-range entanglement, which is at the origin of intrinsic topological order. However, topological properties protected by symmetries emerge even in noninteracting systems and, perhaps surprisingly, can be described within the framework of good old band theory of solids. Systems belonging to this category are generically called topological insulators, after the class of materials that is largely responsible for the recent surge in research on topological matter. In addition, topological band theory considerations can also be applied to superconductors (and superfluids), as described at the mean-field level using Bogoliubov–de Gennes theory. This chapter summarizes the key ideas behind the topological classification of noninteracting systems and discusses the basic properties of various classes of topological insulators and superconductors. For in-depth discussions and related developments the reader is referred to a number of books [ 54 , 175 , 469 ] and review papers [ 23 , 239 , 240 , 421 ] specifically dedicated to this subject.
Gauge theories and topological phases play a fundamental role in different areas of physics. The first ones are at the basis of the Standard Model in the field of particle physics, describing the electroweak and strong interactions through a non-Abelian gauge theory. In condensed matter and statistical physics, gauge theories arise as low-energy effective descriptions of strongly correlated phenomena, such as quantum spin liquids and quantum Hall effect. In this realm there is a strong connection with topological phases and order, as emergent gauge fermions and bosons often describe collective excitations of new exotic states of matter of spin models. The discretization on a lattice is a possible way of dealing with the strongly coupled nature of these theories, due to the fact that this formulation at finite volume provides natural regularizing cut-offs, i.e. the lattice size and spacing. This allows for the investigation of different non-perturbative properties both numerically and analytically. Despite the success of these methods, there are various aspects which remain intractable due to the sign or complex action problems, like the out of equilibrium real time evolution or the analysis of quantum chromodynamics with finite chemical potential. In this respect, quantum simulators of many-body systems to simulate high energy physics arise as promising alternatives to face these problems in the near future. They are quantum systems that can be controlled and used to simulate more complicated systems, whose properties could not be analysed with classical computational, experimental or theoretical tools. In the last decades, there has been a huge development in the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics, allowing for the realization highly precise and controllable platforms by means of trapped ions, superconducting circuits, Rydberg atoms and ultracold atoms in optical lattices. This work of Thesis is part of these fields and has different purposes, all of them connected with the study of gauge theories and topological phases. Firstly, we want to develop a reformulation of lattice gauge theories in terms of gauge invariant fields, in a way to deal solely with physical variables directly in the action. Among several possible advantages, a crucial point is that this can be particularly helpful for the construction of consistent approximation schemes, such as mean-field theories, in order to understand and capture some of the physical features of the theory and make the mean-field approximation consistent with the Elitzur theorem, stating that a local gauge symmetry can not be spontaneously broken. As a second point, we face the problem of simulating higher dimensional gauge theories with ultracold atoms. One of the challenges in more than one dimension is indeed the realization of plaquette interaction terms in the Hamiltonian of lattice gauge theories: these can be engineered through four correlated hoppings in perturbation theory, or by means of constrained hoppings in the dual formulation. In this respect, our main target is to set up an ultracold atomic platform generating the plaquette term in two dimensions using only two correlated hoppings, and protecting gauge invariance through angular momentum conservation. The last point we address in the Thesis is related to the analysis of particles moving in static background gauge potentials, i.e. when the considered gauge field has no dynamical term in the action of the system. Indeed, the dynamics of quantum particles in the presence of static gauge fields gives rise to intriguing physical phenomena. In particular, using ultracold atom setups, the realization of artificial gauge potentials can be used to investigate the physics of topological semimetals, such as Weyl or Dirac type. In the last ten years, a lot of attention has been paid to their characterization, due to the appearence of clear theoretical predictions and very well-controlled experimental techniques. We investigate here the relation between topological phase transitions and van Hove singularities, i.e. the discontinuities in the energy derivative of the density of states, in three-dimensional gapless systems. In such materials, topological phase transitions can be defined by changes of the topological invariants of the Fermi sheets, happening at specific singular points. Moreover, Fermi surface singularities result in the presence of the so-called van Hove points. We then present a general argument to relate topological phase transitions and van Hove singularities, and show observable consequences that are related to the transport properties of the system. We exemplify our argument in Weyl systems by analyzing the three-dimensional Hofstadter model for various commensurate fluxes, which offers the opportunity to consider different kinds of Weyl metals and to understand the features of their density of states.
"As the progress of science pushes the frontiers of studying nature to both the extremely large scale and the incredibly small scale, experiments can become increasingly difficult to perform. Therefore, a scale model experiment for these kinds of physics can be useful as long as it is relatively easy to access and control. This is the idea of quantum simulation, where one system exactly mimics another when they are subjected to equivalent physical scenarios. Topological systems, those with a property that is stabilized by their specific configuration, are often quite challenging to experimentally probe. Therefore, test bed systems have been widely and successfully applied to studying topology in an effort to advance the field, which promises enticing applications such as robust quantum technology. Our particular scheme uses a novel type of ""synthetic"" dimension for atoms of a Bose–Einstein condensate, which we call a momentum-space lattice, to emulate one-dimensional lattice models. The idea of a synthetic dimension or synthetic lattices is a useful construct to describe how the particle dynamics can evolve in degrees of freedom that are not directly related to transport in real space. This can relate to population dynamics in an internal degree of freedom, such as spin, or, in our case, in the dynamics of free-particle-like atomic momentum states. We expose a Bose–Einstein condensate to two laser fields that are capable of driving transitions between different momentum states of the condensate atoms through a two-photon Bragg diffraction process. Neighboring states in the free-particle dispersion relation are characterized by a unique momenta and energy spacing such that we can independently control every aspect of their coupling. In this thesis, we report on the design and construction of an apparatus for the production of 87Rb Bose–Einstein condensates as well as the partial construction of an apparatus for the production of 39K Bose–Einstein condensates. We also discuss the experimental realization of, and theoretical background for, our momentum-space lattice. Using the momentum-space lattice, we perform experiments on not only topological systems, but also on driven artificial spins featuring chaotic dynamics, as well as faster-than-adiabatic quantum state control and preparation. Our measurements of topological systems are based in the 1D Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model, where we report on the direct observation of the localized, solitonic edge state created by the topology inherent in the system. Through the addition of exactly tunable tunneling disorder, we observe the destruction of the band topology due to disorder at a random-singlet transition. Furthermore, we drive a trivial system into a topological phase through the addition of disorder, observing a counter-intuitive phenomenon known as the topological Anderson insulator for the first time. We go on to report on our driven, tunable spin experiment, where we probe effective spin ""squeezing"" (in the absence of any entanglement in our noninteracting system), the out-of-time-ordered correlation function, and chaos. And finally, we use our momentum-space lattice to demonstrate a technique which allows a system to be transformed faster than the adiabatic limit with no diabatic transitions in a highly non-trivial regime. Due to the versatility of the momentum-space lattice, the results detailed here have a broad impact. Our observations of topological phenomena in elementary and canonical 1D systems are some of the first experimental verifications of long-standing predictions. Further, our studies of the interplay between classical chaos and quantum systems may help shed light on this complex and rich problem. And from a more ""applied science"" perspective, our demonstrations of generalized counter-diabatic techniques are widely beneficial and applicable to many systems where adiabaticity is challenged."
1. Define Bose-Einstein condensation in an interacting boson system in term of macroscopic occupation. 2. Introduce the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and its applicable conditions. 3. Derive the hydrodynamic equations and various physical consequences of the hydrodynamics with or without harmonic trap. 4. Introduce sound wave and emphasize the difference between the wave behavior and the diffusive behavior. 5. Introduce the criterion for superfluidity and determine the superfluid critical velocity. 6. Introduce two-fluid hydrodynamics. 7. Introduce the Bogoliubov theory. 8. Introduce various concepts related to quasi-particle, including ground state as vacuum of quasi-particles, the zero-point energy of quasi-particle, quasi-particle lifetime and vacuum fluctuation. 9. Introduce healing length as the characteristic length scale for low-energy physics of an interacting Bose condensate. 10. Summarize the difference between an interacting and non-interacting Bose condensate. 11. Introduce the Bragg spectroscopy. 12. Show that the Bogoliubov theory fails in one-dimension due to the infrared divergence. 13. Discuss the basic idea of the Bethe-ansatz solution and the Tonks-Girardeau limit. 14. Introduce scale invariant quantum gases. 15. Introduce the Josephson effect and the self-trapping as two different transport phenomena driven by phase coherence. 16. Discuss the conjugate relation between the relative phase fluctuation and the relative particle number fluctuation, and show strong enough phase fluctuation renders the system into a Fock state. 17. Discuss an example of quantum measurement that can project two independent condensates to a coherent superposition state. 18. Discuss interference effects in density and density-density correlations. 19. Discuss the relation between the instability of the Sch\"odinger Cat state and the stability of symmetry breaking.