Non-Abelian Gauge Fields in Photonic Cavities and Photonic Superfluids

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how anisotropy and TE-TM splitting in microcavities create tunable gauge fields for polariton condensates, leading to novel focusing effects and superfluidity breakdown.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate and control non-Abelian gauge fields in photonic systems using microcavity anisotropy and mode splitting.

Findings

Monopolar gauge fields cause focusing effects in linear regimes.

Spin-orbit coupling leads to superfluidity breakdown in interacting regimes.

Textured ground states like stripes and domain walls emerge dynamically.

Abstract

We show that the interplay between the structure anisotropy and the energy splitting between the TE and TM modes of a microcavity leads to the appearance of a gauge field for a propagating polariton condensate. This field is analog with a spin-orbit coupling and the field texture can be tuned by rotating the sample and ranges continuously from a Rashba to a monopolar field. In the linear regime, the monopolar field leads to a remarkable focusing effect. In the interacting regime, the effective spin-orbit coupling induces a breakdown of superfluidity. The spatially homogeneous flows become unstable and dynamically evolve into textured ground states such as stripes and domain walls.