Ultracold fermions in a cavity-induced artificial magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how ultracold fermions in an optical lattice coupled to a cavity field can self-organize into states with artificial magnetic fields, leading to chiral phases with edge currents and enabling fast, non-destructive measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a cavity-mediated mechanism for creating and controlling artificial magnetic fields in fermionic quantum gases, with potential for robust quantum state manipulation.

Findings

Fermions form chiral insulators or liquids with edge currents

Cavity feedback enables fast switching of edge currents

Cavity output allows non-destructive atomic measurements

Abstract

We show how a fermionic quantum gas in an optical lattice and coupled to the field of an optical cavity can self-organize into a state in which the spontaneously emerging cavity field amplitude induces an artificial magnetic field. The fermions form either a chiral insulator or a chiral liquid carrying edge currents. The feedback mechanism via the cavity field enables robust and fast switching of the edge currents and the cavity output can be employed for non-destructive measurements of the atomic dynamics.