Color-charge separation in trapped SU(3) fermionic atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates color-charge separation in one-dimensional SU(3) fermionic atoms using time-dependent DMRG simulations, revealing distinct velocities for charge and color excitations.

Contribution

It extends the concept of spin-charge separation to SU(3) systems and explores the effects of interactions and anisotropy through numerical simulations.

Findings

Different velocities of charge and color degrees of freedom observed.

Color-charge separation persists despite anisotropy and filling variations.

Attractive and repulsive interactions influence the dynamics distinctly.

Abstract

Cold fermionic atoms with three different hyperfine states with SU(3) symmetry confined in one-dimensional optical lattices show color-charge separation, generalizing the conventional spin charge separation for interacting SU(2) fermions in one dimension. Through time-dependent DMRG simulations, we explore the features of this phenomenon for a generalized SU(3) Hubbard Hamiltonian. In our numerical simulations of finite size systems, we observe different velocities of the charge and color degrees of freedom when a Gaussian wave packet or a charge (color) density response to a local perturbation is evolved. The differences between attractive and repulsive interactions are explored and we note that neither a small anisotropy of the interaction, breaking the SU(3) symmetry, nor the filling impedes the basic observation of these effects.