Effective multi-body SU($N$)-symmetric interactions of ultracold fermionic atoms on a 3-D lattice

TL;DR

This paper develops a low-energy effective theory for ultracold fermionic atoms with SU(N) symmetry in a 3D lattice, revealing emergent multi-body interactions relevant for quantum simulations of complex spin models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel effective theory capturing multi-body SU(N)-symmetric interactions in ultracold fermionic atoms, aligned with recent experimental setups.

Findings

Characterizes low-lying excitations in the effective theory

Predicts many-body interaction energies matching experimental measurements

Lays groundwork for controlled SU(N) quantum simulations

Abstract

Rapid advancements in the experimental capabilities with ultracold alkaline-earth-like atoms (AEAs) bring to a surprisingly near term the prospect of performing quantum simulations of spin models and lattice field theories exhibiting SU($N$) symmetry. Motivated in particular by recent experiments preparing high density samples of strongly interacting ${}^{87}$Sr atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice, we develop a low-energy effective theory of fermionic AEAs which exhibits emergent multi-body SU($N$)-symmetric interactions, where $N$ is the number of atomic nuclear spin levels. Our theory is limited to the experimental regime of (i) a deep lattice, with (ii) at most one atom occupying each nuclear spin state on any lattice site. The latter restriction is a consequence of initial ground-state preparation. We fully characterize the low-lying excitations in our effective theory, and compare predictions of many-body interaction energies with direct measurements of many-body excitation spectra in an optical lattice clock. Our work makes the first step in enabling a controlled, bottom-up experimental investigation of multi-body SU($N$) physics.