SO(3) "Nuclear Physics" with ultracold Gases

TL;DR

This paper explores how an SO(3) lattice gauge theory, serving as a simplified model for QCD, can be simulated with ultracold atoms, revealing key nuclear physics features and connecting gauge theories with quantum magnetism.

Contribution

It demonstrates that an SO(3) gauge theory can be realized with ultracold atoms, capturing essential QCD phenomena and linking non-Abelian gauge theories to quantum magnetism.

Findings

Model exhibits spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and restoration at finite density.

One-dimensional dynamics can be mapped to a spin S=3/2 Heisenberg model.

Ultracold atom systems can simulate key aspects of non-Abelian gauge theories.

Abstract

An ab initio calculation of nuclear physics from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental SU(3) gauge theory of the strong interaction, remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we discuss the emergence of key elements of nuclear physics using an SO(3) lattice gauge theory as a toy model for QCD. We show that this model is accessible to state-of-the-art quantum simulation experiments with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. First, we demonstrate that our model shares characteristic many-body features with QCD, such as the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry, its restoration at finite baryon density, as well as the existence of few-body bound states. Then we show that in the one-dimensional case, the dynamics in the gauge invariant sector can be encoded as a spin S=3/2 Heisenberg model, i.e., as quantum magnetism, which has a natural realization with bosonic mixtures in optical lattices, and thus sheds light on the connection between non-Abelian gauge theories and quantum magnetism.