The effects of optically induced non-Abelian gauge field in cold atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to generate non-Abelian gauge fields in cold atoms using laser-induced couplings, enabling exploration of complex quantum phenomena like Landau levels and phase diagrams.

Contribution

It introduces a method to produce time-dependent non-Abelian gauge fields in cold atoms via laser interference, expanding control over quantum simulations.

Findings

Generation of N-1 degenerate dark states in N-level systems

Creation of time-dependent non-Abelian gauge potentials

Discussion of Landau levels and phase diagrams in BECs

Abstract

We show that $N-1$ degenerate dark states can be generated by coupling $N$-fold degenerate ground states and a common excited state with $N$ laser fields. Interferences between light waves with different frequencies can produce laser fields with time-dependent amplitudes, which can induce not only U(N) non-Abelian vector fields but also the scalar ones for the adiabatic motion of atoms in such laser fields. As an example, a time-periodic gauge potential is produced by applying specific laser fields to a tripod system. Some features of the Landau levels and the ground-state phase diagram of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate for a concrete gauge field are also discussed.