The internal degrees of freedom provided by ultracold atoms provide a route for realizing higher dimensional physics in systems with limited spatial dimensions. Nonspatial degrees of freedom in these systems are dubbed “synthetic dimensions.” This connection is useful from an …

Real-space mean-field theory of a spin-1 Bose gas in synthetic dimensions Read more »

Synthetic gauge fields for ultracold neutral atoms—engineered using the interaction between laser fields and the atoms’ internal ‘spin’ degrees of freedom—provide promising techniques for generating the large (synthetic) magnetic fields required to reach the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) limit in …

Tutorial: Synthetic gauge potentials for ultracold neutral atoms Read more »

We study the interplay between large-spin, spin-orbit coupling, and superfluidity for bosons in a two-dimensional optical lattice, focusing on the spin-1 spin-orbit-coupled system recently realized at the Joint Quantum Institute [Campbell et al., arXiv:1501.05984]. We find a rich quantum phase …

Interaction-driven exotic quantum phases in spin-orbit-coupled spin-1 bosons Read more »

We demonstrate that dynamical probes provide direct means of detecting the topological phase transition (TPT) between conventional and topological phases, which would otherwise be difficult to access because of loss or heating processes. We propose to avoid such heating by …

Dynamical Detection of Topological Phase Transitions in Short-Lived Atomic Systems Read more »

We consider ultracold atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice of the dice geometry in a tight-binding regime. The atoms experience a laser-assisted tunneling between the nearest neighbor sites of the dice lattice accompanied by the momentum recoil. This allows one …

Published and Featured in PRA Kaleidoscope: Three-level Haldane-like model on a dice optical lattice Read more »

We theoretically explore atomic Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) subject to position-dependent spin–orbit coupling (SOC). This SOC can be produced by cyclically laser coupling four internal atomic ground (or metastable) states in an environment where the detuning from resonance depends on position. …

Position-dependent spin–orbit coupling for ultracold atoms Read more »

Nathan Goldman et al‘s result describing techniques for measuring topology in a laser-coupled honeycomb lattice has been featured as a “Highlight of 2013” by The New Journal of Physics! This rocks! Highlights page: http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/page/highlights-of-2013 Article: http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/15/1/013025/article