Incompressible states of a two-component Fermi gas in a double-well optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to study frustration-induced magnetic phase transitions in cold atom systems within optical lattices, specifically creating two-leg spin ladders that transition from spin liquids to incompressible states, with analysis of experimental signatures.

Contribution

It introduces a scheme to realize frustrated spin ladders with cold atoms in optical lattices, enabling exploration of novel magnetic phases and phase transitions.

Findings

Demonstrates how to create two-leg spin ladders with frustrated interactions

Identifies a phase transition from a spin liquid to an incompressible state

Analyzes experimental quantities to detect phase changes

Abstract

We propose a scheme to investigate the effect of frustration on the magnetic phase transitions of cold atoms confined in an optical lattice. We also demonstrate how to get two-leg spin ladders with frustrated spin-exchange coupling which display a phase transition from a spin liquid to a fully incompressible state. Various experimental quantities are further analyzed for describing this phase.