Chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bands
Ultracold atoms loaded into higher Bloch bands provide an elegant setting for realizing many-body quantum states that spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry through the formation of chiral orbital order. The applicability of this strategy remains nonetheless limited due to the finite lifetime of...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Physical Review Research |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.023064 |
| _version_ | 1797210517936275456 |
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| author | Marco Di Liberto Nathan Goldman |
| author_facet | Marco Di Liberto Nathan Goldman |
| author_sort | Marco Di Liberto |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Ultracold atoms loaded into higher Bloch bands provide an elegant setting for realizing many-body quantum states that spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry through the formation of chiral orbital order. The applicability of this strategy remains nonetheless limited due to the finite lifetime of atoms in high-energy bands. Here we introduce an alternative framework, suitable for bosonic gases, which builds on assembling square plaquettes pierced by a π flux (half a magnetic-flux quantum). This setting is shown to be formally equivalent to an interacting bosonic gas loaded into p orbitals, and we explore the consequences of the resulting chiral orbital order, both for weak and strong on-site interactions. We demonstrate the emergence of a chiral superfluid vortex lattice, exhibiting a long-lived gapped collective mode that is characterized by local chiral currents. This chiral superfluid phase is shown to undergo a phase transition to a chiral Mott insulator for sufficiently strong interactions. Our work establishes coupled π-flux plaquettes as a practical route for the emergence of orbital order and chiral phases of matter. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:11:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-80fa72ff9de4452c9ef6138181c790cf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2643-1564 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:11:52Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Physical Review Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-80fa72ff9de4452c9ef6138181c790cf2024-04-12T17:30:30ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642023-04-015202306410.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.023064Chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bandsMarco Di LibertoNathan GoldmanUltracold atoms loaded into higher Bloch bands provide an elegant setting for realizing many-body quantum states that spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry through the formation of chiral orbital order. The applicability of this strategy remains nonetheless limited due to the finite lifetime of atoms in high-energy bands. Here we introduce an alternative framework, suitable for bosonic gases, which builds on assembling square plaquettes pierced by a π flux (half a magnetic-flux quantum). This setting is shown to be formally equivalent to an interacting bosonic gas loaded into p orbitals, and we explore the consequences of the resulting chiral orbital order, both for weak and strong on-site interactions. We demonstrate the emergence of a chiral superfluid vortex lattice, exhibiting a long-lived gapped collective mode that is characterized by local chiral currents. This chiral superfluid phase is shown to undergo a phase transition to a chiral Mott insulator for sufficiently strong interactions. Our work establishes coupled π-flux plaquettes as a practical route for the emergence of orbital order and chiral phases of matter.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.023064 |
| spellingShingle | Marco Di Liberto Nathan Goldman Chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bands Physical Review Research |
| title | Chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bands |
| title_full | Chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bands |
| title_fullStr | Chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bands |
| title_full_unstemmed | Chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bands |
| title_short | Chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bands |
| title_sort | chiral orbital order of interacting bosons without higher bands |
| url | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.023064 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT marcodiliberto chiralorbitalorderofinteractingbosonswithouthigherbands AT nathangoldman chiralorbitalorderofinteractingbosonswithouthigherbands |