Spinons and Holons with Polarized Photons in a Nonlinear Waveguide

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to observe spin-charge separation in a one-dimensional correlated fermion system using polarized photons in a nonlinear waveguide, employing cold atoms and optical control to simulate a Luttinger liquid.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical simulation of spin-charge separation in a strongly interacting fermionic system using polaritons in a nonlinear waveguide.

Findings

Demonstrates the feasibility of observing spin-charge separation via optical measurements.

Shows how to tune the system to the regime where spin-charge separation occurs.

Provides a method to simulate strongly interacting fermions with stationary dark-state polaritons.

Abstract

We show that the spin-charge separation predicted for correlated fermions in one dimension, could be observed using polarized photons propagating in a nonlinear optical waveguide. Using coherent control techniques and employing a cold atom ensemble interacting with the photons, large nonlinearities in the single photon level can be achieved. We show that the latter can allow for the simulation of a strongly interacting gas, which is made of stationary dark-state polaritons of two species and then shown to form a Luttinger liquid of effective fermions for the right regime of interactions. The system can be tuned optically to the relevant regime where the spin-charge separation is expected to occur. The characteristic features of the separation as demonstrated in the different spin and charge densities and velocities can be efficiently detected via optical measurements of the emitted photons with current optical technologies.