Antiferromagnetic topological insulators in cold atomic gases

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to realize three-dimensional antiferromagnetic topological insulators in cold atomic gases using a spin-dependent optical lattice, enabling the study of topological phases and flat bands with nonzero Chern number.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical lattice design for simulating antiferromagnetic topological insulators and explores their observable responses and potential for flat band realization.

Findings

Design of a spin-dependent optical lattice for topological phases

Identification of observable responses to verify the phase

Proposal for creating flat bands with nonzero Chern number

Abstract

We propose a spin-dependent optical lattice potential that realizes a three-dimensional antiferromagnetic topological insulator in a gas of cold, two-state fermions such as alkaline earths, as well as a model that describes the tight-binding limit of this potential. We discuss the physically observable responses of the gas that can verify the presence of this phase. We also point out how this model can be used to obtain two-dimensional flat bands with nonzero Chern number.