Topological phonons in arrays of ultracold dipolar particles

TL;DR

This paper explores how arrays of ultracold dipolar particles can host topological phonon modes, offering a versatile platform to study robust, nonlocal vibrational phenomena influenced by long-range interactions and interaction anisotropy.

Contribution

It introduces a method to realize and control topological phonon modes in dipolar particle arrays by tuning interaction anisotropy, expanding the experimental toolkit for topological physics.

Findings

Arrays support topological phonon modes with tunable properties

Interaction anisotropy controls topological phase transitions

Platform enables investigation of various topological effects in a single setup

Abstract

The notion of topology in physical systems is associated with the existence of a nonlocal ordering that is insensitive to a large class of perturbations. This brings robustness to the behaviour of the system and can serve as a ground for developing new fault-tolerant applications. We discuss how to design and study a large variety of topology-related phenomena for phonon-like collective modes in arrays of ultracold polarized dipolar particles. These modes are coherently propagating vibrational excitations, corresponding to oscillations of particles around their equilibrium positions, which exist in the regime where long-range interactions dominate over single-particle motion. We demonstrate that such systems offer a distinct and versatile tool to investigate a wide range of topological effects in a single experimental setup with a chosen underlying crystal structure by simply controlling the anisotropy of the interactions via the orientation of the external polarizing field. Our results show that arrays of dipolar particles provide a promising unifying platform to investigate topological phenomena with phononic modes.