Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 13: Transport: Poster Session

TT 13.51: Poster

Monday, March 26, 2012, 15:00–19:00, Poster B

Topological insulators in cold-atom gases with non-Abelian gauge fields: the role of interactions — •Peter Philipp Orth¹, Daniel Cocks², Stephan Rachel³, Michael Buchhold², Karyn Le Hur^4,3, and Walter Hofstetter² — ¹Institut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany — ²Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe Universität, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany — ³Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA — ⁴Center for Theoretical Physics, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France

With the recent technological advance of creating (non)-Abelian gauge fields for ultracold atoms in optical lattices, it becomes possible to study the interplay of topological phases and interactions in these systems. Specifically, we consider a spinful and time-reversal invariant version of the Hofstadter problem. In addition, we allow for a hopping term which does not preserve S_z spin symmetry and a staggered sublattice potential. Without interactions, the parameters can be tuned such that the system is a topological insulator. Using a combination of analytical techniques and the powerful real-space dynamical mean-field (R-DMFT) method, we discuss the effect of interactions and determine the interacting phase diagram.