Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 35: Quantum Gases (Fermions) II
Q 35.6: Talk
Tuesday, March 6, 2018, 15:15–15:30, K 1.022
Characterizing topology by dynamics: Chern number from linking number — •Matthias Tarnowski1,2, Nur Ünal3, Nick Fläschner1,2, Benno Rem1,2, André Eckardt3, Klaus Sengstock1,2,4, and Christof Weitenberg1,2 — 1Institut für Laserphysik, Universität Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany — 2The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, 22761 Hamburg, Germany — 3Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany — 4Zentrum für Optische Quantentechnologien, Universität Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
Topology plays an important role in modern solid state physics describing intriguing quantum states such as topological insulators. It is an intrinsically non-local property and therefore challenging to access, often studied only via the resulting edge states. Here, we report on a new approach by connecting the Chern number with the dynamical evolution of highly excited states of the system and demonstrate it experimentally with cold atoms in hexagonal optical lattices. We study the contour of dynamically created vortex pairs in momentum space following a sudden quench into the system of interest and infer the Chern number of the post-quench Hamiltonian from the topology of the contour, quantified by the linking number with the static vortices. Our work exploits a direct mapping between two topological indices and allows detecting topology by the naked eye.