Mott insulators in plaquettes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the effects of gauge potentials and spin-orbit couplings on small Mott insulators of ultracold atoms, revealing altered energy structures and potential connections to RVB states.

Contribution

It derives an effective theory for Mott insulators with one atom per site and analyzes their dynamical behavior as barriers are removed.

Findings

Significant changes in energy level structure and degeneracies.

Potential high overlap with resonating valence bond states.

Exact solutions demonstrating dynamical evolution.

Abstract

We study small systems of Mott insulating ultracold atoms under the influence of gauge potentials and spin-orbit couplings. We use second order perturbation theory in tunneling, derive an effective theory for the Mott insulators with one atom per site, and solve it exactly. We find dramatic changes in the level structure and in the amount of degeneracies expected. We also demonstrate the dynamical behavior as the barriers between plaquettes are gradually removed and find potentially high overlap with the resonating valence bond (RVB) state of the larger system.