Mainz 2017 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 52: Quantum Gases: Fermions II
Q 52.2: Talk
Thursday, March 9, 2017, 14:45–15:00, P 204
Synthetic Creutz-Hubbard Model: Interacting Topological Insulators with Ultracold Atoms — Johannes Jünemann1,2, Angelo Piga3, Shi-Ju Ran3, Maciej Lewenstein3,4, •Matteo Rizzi1, and Alejandro Bermudez5,6 — 1Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz (Germany) — 2MAINZ - Graduate School Materials Science in Mainz (Germany) — 3ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Castelldefels (Spain) — 4ICREA-Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona (Spain) — 5Swansea University (UK) — 6Instituto de Física Fundamental, IFF-CSIC, Madrid (Spain)
Understanding the robustness of topological phases of matter in the presence of strong interactions, and synthesising novel strongly-correlated topological materials, lie among the most important challenges of modern theoretical and experimental physics. Here we present a complete theoretical analysis of the Creutz-Hubbard ladder, a paradigmatic model that provides a neat playground to address these challenges. We put special attention to the competition of exotic topological phases and orbital quantum magnetism in the regime of strong interactions and identify the universality class of the different phase transitions. These results are furthermore confirmed and extended by extensive numerical simulations and analysis of the entanglement properties. Moreover, we propose how to experimentally realize this model and test its phase diagram in a synthetic ladder, made of two internal states of ultracold fermionic atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Our work paves the way towards quantum simulators of interacting topological insulators with cold atoms.