Chromodynamics of photons in an artificial non-Abelian magnetic Yang-Mills field

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the experimental creation of a non-Abelian Yang-Mills gauge field in a photonic system, allowing the simulation of quark-gluon dynamics and topological physics phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach to synthesize and observe non-Abelian gauge fields in exciton-polariton systems, bridging high energy physics and photonics.

Findings

Observation of curved trajectories consistent with Yang-Mills equations

Detection of spin precession in exciton-polariton flow

Simulation of quark-gluon-like interactions in a photonic platform

Abstract

Artificial gauge fields, simulating real phenomenologies that unfold in a vast variety of systems, offer extraordinary possibilities to study extreme physical effects in many different environments, from high energy physics to quantum mechanics and cosmology. They are also at the heart of topological physics. Here, exploiting a strongly anisotropic material under strong coupling regime, we experimentally synthesize a Yang-Mills non-Abelian gauge field acting on an exciton-polariton quantum flow like a magnetic field. We observe experimentally the corresponding curved trajectories and spin precession. This motion follows chromodynamics equations which normally describe the quarks strong interactions and their color. Our work therefore opens exciting perspectives of simulating quark-gluon dynamics using highly flexible photonic simulators. It makes of sub-atomic physics a potential new playground to apply topological physics concepts.