Non-Abelian dynamical gauge field and topological superfluids in optical Raman lattice

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to realize non-Abelian dynamical gauge fields in ultracold fermions, leading to topological superfluidity driven by novel pairing mechanisms, with potential for experimental realization of complex gauge and topological phases.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental scheme to generate non-Abelian dynamical gauge fields in optical lattices, enabling the study of correlated topological superfluids with new pairing mechanisms.

Findings

Realization of non-Abelian dynamical gauge fields in 2D optical Raman lattices.

Identification of a novel pairing mechanism leading to topological superfluidity.

Analytic and numerical demonstration of the topological phase transition.

Abstract

We propose an experimental scheme to realize non-Abelian dynamical gauge field for ultracold fermions, which induces a novel pairing mechanism of topological superfluidity. The dynamical gauge fields arise from nontrivial interplay effect between the strong Zeeman splitting and Hubbard interaction in a two-dimensional (2D) optical Raman lattice. The spin-flip transitions are forbidden by the large Zeeman detuning, but are restored when the Zeeman splitting is compensated by Hubbard interaction. This scheme allows to generate a dynamical non-Abelian gauge field that leads to a Dirac type correlated 2D spin-orbit interaction depending on local state configurations. The topological superfluid from a novel pairing driven by 2D dynamical gauge fields is reached, with analytic and numerical results being obtained. Our work may open up a door to emulate non-Abelian dynamical gauge fields and correlated topological phases with experimental feasibility.