Hannover 2013 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 31: Quantum gases: Optical lattices I

Q 31.5: Talk

Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 15:15–15:30, E 001

Gapped chiral phases and spontaneous symmetry breaking for ultracold bosons in zig-zag optical lattices — •Sebastian Greschner, Luis Santos, and Temo Vekua — Institut für theoretische Physik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Appelstr. 2, 30167 Hannover, Germany

Ultracold bosons in (quasi-)one-dimensional zig-zag optical lattices - apart from being a theoretically well controllable test-bed to study the properties of possible quantum simulators of quantum antiferromagnetism - exhibit a wealth of interesting physical phenomena some of which are particular for one-dimensional systems [1]. In this talk we present the full phase diagram of ultracold bosons in zig-zag optical lattices for non-integer fillings. We comment on how interactions lead to a competition between spontaneous symmetry breaking chiral SF and two-component SF phases and analyse the emergence of insulating phases as well as gapped chiral phases exhibiting both local currents as well as a finite excitation gap. Some issues of phase preparation and detection are discussed.

[1] S. Greschner et al., arXiv:1202.5386 (2012)