Non-Abelian optical lattices: anomalous quantum Hall effect and Dirac fermions

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 103; no. 3; p. 035301
• Main Authors: Goldman, N, Kubasiak, A, Bermudez, A, Gaspard, P, Lewenstein, M, Martin-Delgado, M A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 17-07-2009
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.103.035301

We study the properties of an ultracold Fermi gas loaded in an optical square lattice and subjected to an external and classical non-Abelian gauge field. We show that this system can be exploited as an optical analogue of relativistic quantum electrodynamics, offering a remarkable route to access the exotic properties of massless Dirac fermions with cold atoms experiments. In particular, we show that the underlying Minkowski space-time can also be modified, reaching anisotropic regimes where a remarkable anomalous quantum Hall effect and a squeezed Landau vacuum could be observed.