Topological floating phase of dipolar bosons in an optical ladder

TL;DR

This paper predicts a topological floating phase in dipolar bosons on optical ladders, characterized by incommensurate correlations and a topological entanglement spectrum, revealing a new intermediate phase in quantum melting.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a topological floating phase in dipolar XXZ ladders, linking long-range interactions, tilting, and topological properties in a novel quantum phase.

Findings

Identification of a topological floating phase with incommensurate correlations

Entanglement spectrum analysis reveals topological nature of the phase

Proposes experimental realization of the phase in ongoing experiments

Abstract

Ultracold dipolar hard-core bosons in optical ladders provide exciting possibilities for the quantum simulation of anisotropic XXZ spin ladders. We show that introducing a tilt along the rungs results in a rich phase diagram at unit filling. In particular, for a sufficiently strong dipolar strength, the interplay between the long-range tail of the dipolar interactions and the tilting leads to the emergence of a quantum floating phase, a critical phase with incommensurate density-density correlations. Interestingly, the study of the entanglement spectrum, reveals that the floating phase is topological, constituting an intermediate gapless stage in the melting of a crystal into a gapped topological Haldane phase. This novel scenario for topological floating phases in dipolar XXZ ladders can be investigated in on-going experiments.