| Autor: |
Marco Di Liberto, Nathan Goldman |
| Jazyk: |
angličtina |
| Rok vydání: |
2023 |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Physical Review Research, Vol 5, Iss 2, p 023064 (2023) |
| Druh dokumentu: |
article |
| ISSN: |
2643-1564 |
| DOI: |
10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.023064 |
| Popis: |
Ultracold atoms loaded into higher Bloch bands provide an elegant setting for realizing many-body quantum states that spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry through the formation of chiral orbital order. The applicability of this strategy remains nonetheless limited due to the finite lifetime of atoms in high-energy bands. Here we introduce an alternative framework, suitable for bosonic gases, which builds on assembling square plaquettes pierced by a π flux (half a magnetic-flux quantum). This setting is shown to be formally equivalent to an interacting bosonic gas loaded into p orbitals, and we explore the consequences of the resulting chiral orbital order, both for weak and strong on-site interactions. We demonstrate the emergence of a chiral superfluid vortex lattice, exhibiting a long-lived gapped collective mode that is characterized by local chiral currents. This chiral superfluid phase is shown to undergo a phase transition to a chiral Mott insulator for sufficiently strong interactions. Our work establishes coupled π-flux plaquettes as a practical route for the emergence of orbital order and chiral phases of matter. |
| Databáze: |
Directory of Open Access Journals |
| Externí odkaz: |
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