Topological Mott insulators of ultracold atomic mixtures induced by interactions in one-dimensional optical superlattices

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that strong interactions in one-dimensional optical superlattices can induce topological Mott insulators from trivial states, characterized by nonzero Chern numbers, with observable density profiles.

Contribution

It provides exactly solvable models showing interaction-driven topological phases in atomic mixtures within optical superlattices, expanding understanding of topological matter.

Findings

Topological Mott insulators emerge from trivial states due to strong interactions.

The topological phase is characterized by a nonzero Chern number.

Density profiles reveal the topological nature of the Mott phase.

Abstract

We present exactly solvable examples that topological Mott insulators can emerge from topologically trivial states due to strong interactions between atoms for atomic mixtures trapped in one-dimensional optical superlattice systems. The topological Mott insulating state is characterized by nonzero Chern number and appears in the strongly interacting limit as long as the total band filling factor is an integer, which is not sensitive to the filling of each component. The topological nature of the Mott phase can be revealed by observing the density profile of the trapped system. Our results can be also generalized to the multi-component atomic systems.