Abstract
We explore the effects of artificial U ( 3 ) gauge potentials on ultracold atoms. We study background gauge fields with both non-constant and constant Wilson loops around plaquettes, obtaining the energy spectra in each case. The scenario of metal–insulator transition for irrational fluxes is also examined. Finally, we discuss the effect of such a gauge potential on the superfluid–insulator transition for bosonic ultracold atoms.
Highlights
The study of ultracold atoms in optical lattices has emerged to be a subject of great interest in recent years, opening up the possibilities of synthesising gauge fields capable of coupling to neutral atoms
We investigate whether features similar to those discussed in the literature for U(2) gauge potentials reveal themselves in artificial U(3) gauge potentials on ultracold atoms
We have extended existing studies of ultracold atoms in artificial U(2) gauge potentials to the case of U(3)
Summary
The study of ultracold atoms in optical lattices has emerged to be a subject of great interest in recent years, opening up the possibilities of synthesising gauge fields capable of coupling to neutral atoms This is in a vein similar to how electromagnetic fields couple to charged matter, for instance, or how SU(2) and SU(3) fields couple to fundamental particles in high-energy physics [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. A novel scheme to generate artificial Abelian “magnetic” fields was proposed in the work by Jaksch and Zoller [12] This involves the coherent transfer of atoms between two different internal states by making use of Raman lasers.
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