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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TOPSIM (Topology and symmetries in synthetic fermionic systems)

Teaser

Summary

Topology and symmetry are two fundamental and intertwined concepts driving the behavior of fermionic systems in both condensed-matter and high-energy physics. The goal of the TOPSIM project is to address open problems concerning topological states of fermionic matter from an experimental point of view, by taking advantage of novel possibilities of quantum control on synthetic systems formed by ultracold neutral atoms. We will investigate the behavior of fermionic matter under strong gauge fields in order to study quantum Hall physics and the emergence of topological order in a fully tunable experimental geometry. We will also synthesize fermionic systems exhibiting enlarged interaction symmetries beyond the SU(2) symmetry of electrons, which will allow us to experimentally realize, for the first time, SU(N) models that have no other experimental counterpart in physics, and to use them to study the emergence of long-sought topological states of matter. With these ambitious goals, the TOPSIM project will considerably advance our understanding of topological fermionic matter, paving the way to new methods of investigation of open questions in both high- and low-energy physics, by approaching many-body problems with metrological quantum control.

Work performed

\"In the first 30 months of activity we have worked on a new experimental platform for the investigation of ultracold atomic systems using the concept of \"\"synthetic dimensions\"\". In this approach a lattice structure along an effective \"\"extra\"\" dimension is realized by coupling different internal states of individual atoms. This technology will allow us to study effects of topology in a tunable setting, with the generation of large effective magnetic fields and full control on the system connectivities. By using this approach, in preliminary experiments, we have started the investigation of effects of atom-atom interactions on the transport properties of the system.

We have also worked on new technologies for the manipulation and detection of ultracold quantum states based on the excitation of the atoms with an ultranarrow optical clock transition coupling long-lived electronic states. We have used this approach to probe the properties of quantum states and to control the binding of atoms into molecules, that can have implications for the quantum simulation of exotic superconductor states and even for new metrological applications.

We have also developed new theoretical ideas, based on the TOPSIM approach, that extend the scope of the project and can lead to the observation of new topological states of matter.
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Final results

In TOPSIM we expect to advance the state of the art in the quantum simulation of topological states of matter with ultracold atoms. There are several interesting directions in which our approach is novel with respect to existing experimental efforts, specifically the possibility to tune the topology of the system (e.g. by realizing lattice systems with physical periodic boundary conditions), enhanced resilience to spurious effects (e.g. heating), accessibility to new regimes of interaction where the study of interacting topological states of matter could be performed. As also shown by several recent theoretical works, the experimental approach we will investigate has the potential to access the physics of strongly-correlated states of matter, including the fractional quantum Hall effect, topological magnetic phases and systems with Majorana-like excitations, in a way that, until now, has not been possible in other physical systems and in other quantum simulation approaches.