Optical detection of fractional particle number in an atomic Fermi-Dirac gas

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical method to detect fractional particle numbers in a one-dimensional atomic Fermi-Dirac gas using light scattering, highlighting a quantum measurement of fractionalization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to measure fractional particle numbers in atomic gases through optical detection of topologically nontrivial phases.

Findings

Fractional eigenvalues of particle number can be detected via light scattering.

The method provides a quantum mechanical measurement of particle number fractionalization.

The approach applies to dilute atomic Fermi gases in optical lattices.

Abstract

We study theoretically a Fermi-Dirac atomic gas in a one-dimensional optical lattice coupled to a coherent electromagnetic field with a topologically nontrivial soliton phase profile. We argue that the resulting fractional eigenvalues of the particle number operator can be detected via light scattering. This could be a truly quantum mechanical measurement of the particle number fractionalization in a dilute atomic gas.