Implementation of Spin Hamiltonians in Optical Lattices

TL;DR

This paper presents an optical lattice setup for simulating spin Hamiltonians, enabling exploration of various quantum phases and measurement of key observables through numerical simulations and proposed experimental methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical lattice configuration to realize and study diverse spin chain phases with controllable parameters and measurement techniques.

Findings

Demonstrates how to prepare ground states adiabatically.

Shows the ability to measure energy gaps and spin correlations.

Proposes methods to detect string order and end-chain effects.

Abstract

We propose an optical lattice setup to investigate spin chains and ladders. Electric and magnetic fields allow us to vary at will the coupling constants, producing a variety of quantum phases including the Haldane phase, critical phases, quantum dimers etc. Numerical simulations are presented showing how ground states can be prepared adiabatically. We also propose ways to measure a number of observables, like energy gap, staggered magnetization, end-chain spins effects, spin correlations and the string order parameter.