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Rydberg-atom quantum simulation and Chern-number characterization of a topological Mott insulator

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2012-11-20
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American Physical Society
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In this work we consider a system of spinless fermions with nearest and next-to-nearest neighbor repulsive Hubbard interactions on a honeycomb lattice, and propose and analyze a realistic scheme for analog quantum simulation of this model with cold atoms in a two-dimensional hexagonal optical lattice. To this end, we first derive the zero-temperature phase diagram of the interacting model within a mean-field theory treatment. We show that besides a semimetallic and a charge-density-wave ordered phase, the system exhibits a quantum anomalous Hall phase, which is generated dynamically, i.e., purely as a result of the repulsive fermionic interactions and in the absence of any external gauge fields. We establish the topological nature of this dynamically created Mott-insulating phase by the numerical calculation of a Chern number, and we study the possibility of coexistence of this phase with any of the other phases characterized by local order parameters. Based on the knowledge of the mean-field phase diagram, we then discuss in detail how the interacting Hamiltonian can be engineered effectively by state-of-the-art experimental techniques for laser dressing of cold fermionic ground-state atoms with electronically excited Rydberg states that exhibit strong dipolar interactions.
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© 2012 American Physical Society. A.D. thanks the F.R.S.-FNRS Belgium for financial support and N. Goldman, P. Gaspard, P. de Buyl, and G. D. Paparo for support and valuable discussions. We acknowledge support by the Spanish MICINN Grant No. FIS2009-10061, the CAM research consortium QUITEMAD S2009-ESP-1594, the European Commission PICC: FP7 2007-2013, Grant No. 249958, and the UCM-BS Grant No. GICC-910758.
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