Topological phases of spinless $p$-orbital fermions in zigzag optical lattices

TL;DR

This paper explores how spinless p-orbital fermions in zigzag optical lattices can simulate topological models like the SSH and Ising models, revealing rich phase diagrams and dynamics.

Contribution

It demonstrates a scheme to realize and study topological phases and quantum phase transitions using p-orbital fermions in optical lattices, connecting experimental setups to theoretical models.

Findings

Spinless p-band fermions mimic the SSH and transverse field Ising models.

Analytical and numerical analysis of ground states and phase transitions.

Provides a platform for simulating topological and many-body quantum phenomena.

Abstract

Motivated by the experiment [St-Jean {\it et al}., Nature Photon. {\bf 11}, 651 (2017)] on topological phases with collective photon modes in a zigzag chain of polariton micropillars, we study spinless $p$-orbital fermions with local interorbital hoppings and repulsive interactions between $p_x$ and $p_y$ bands in zigzag optical lattices. We show that spinless $p$-band fermions in zigzag optical lattices can mimic the interacting Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and the effective transverse field Ising model in the presence of local hoppings. We analytically and numerically discuss the ground-state phases and quantum phase transitions of the model. This work provides a simple scheme to simulate topological phases and the quench dynamics of many-body systems in optical lattices.