Abstract
We experimentally realize a Peierls phase in the hopping amplitude of excitations carried by Rydberg atoms, and observe the resulting characteristic chiral motion in a minimal setup of three sites. Our demonstration relies on the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling of the dipolar exchange interaction combined with time-reversal symmetry breaking by a homogeneous external magnetic field. Remarkably, the phase of the hopping amplitude between two sites strongly depends on the occupancy of the third site, thus leading to a correlated hopping associated to a density-dependent Peierls phase. We experimentally observe this density-dependent hopping and show that the excitations behave as anyonic particles with a non-trivial phase under exchange. Finally, we confirm the dependence of the Peierls phase on the geometrical arrangement of the Rydberg atoms.
Highlights
Synthetic quantum systems, i.e., well-controlled systems of interacting particles, are appealing to study many-body phenomena inspired by condensed matter physics [1]
The external magnetic field naturally breaks the time-reversal symmetry, which, combined with the spinorbit coupling, leads to a characteristic chiral motion for a single excitation. We experimentally demonstrate this chiral motion and show that the dynamics is reversed by inverting the direction of the magnetic field
We have experimentally demonstrated the spin-orbit coupling naturally present in dipolar exchange interactions by observing the characteristic chiral motion of an excitation in a minimal setup of three Rydberg atoms
Summary
I.e., well-controlled systems of interacting particles, are appealing to study many-body phenomena inspired by condensed matter physics [1]. In the resonant dipole-dipole regime, when the Rydberg atoms can be considered as two-level systems with states nS and nP, the interaction results in the hopping of the nP excitation between two sites, making it possible to explore transport phenomena We recently used this fact to realize a symmetry-protected topological phase for interacting bosons [34]. The effective Hamiltonian is described by a nontrivial Peierls phase φ in the hopping amplitude, corresponding to a finite magnetic flux through the triangle In this approach the Peierls phase depends on the absence or presence of a second excitation, and naturally gives rise to density-dependent hoppings, which are required for the creation of dynamical gauge fields [39], as recently realized for ultracold atoms in optical lattices [40,41,42]. We conclude by discussing the implications of this spin-orbit coupling on square and honeycomb plaquettes
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