Harmonically trapped atoms with spin–orbit coupling

Abstract

We study harmonically trapped one-dimensional atoms subjected to an equal combination of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin–orbit coupling induced by Raman transition. We first examine the wave function and the degeneracy of the single-particle ground state, followed by a study of two weakly interacting bosons or fermions. For the two-particle ground state, we focus on the effects of the interaction on the degeneracy, the spin density profiles, and the density–density correlation functions. Finally we show how these studies help us to understand the many-body properties of the system.