Topological phases of dipolar particles in elongated Wannier orbitals

Abstract

We show that topological phases with fractional excitations can occur in two-dimensional ultracold dipolar gases on a particular class of optical lattices. Due to the dipolar interaction and lattice confinement, a quantum dimer model emerges naturally as the effective theory describing the low-energy behaviors of these systems under well-controlled approximations. The desired hierarchy of interaction energy scales is achieved by controlling the anisotropy of the orbital dimers and the dipole moments of the particles. Experimental realization and detection of various phases are discussed, as well as the possible relevance for quantum computation.

5 pages, 3 figures; added references, corrected typos

References in corpus (6)

• Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation
• A High Phase-Space-Density Gas of Polar Molecules
• The physics of dipolar bosonic quantum gases
• Spin liquid phase in a $S=1/2$ quantum magnet on the kagome lattice
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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Physics of higher orbital bands in optical lattices: a review
• Quantum electric-dipole liquid on a triangular lattice
• Compressibility, zero sound, and effective mass of a fermionic dipolar gas at finite temperature
• Collective phenomena in quasi-two-dimensional fermionic polar molecules: band renormalization and excitons
• Rotation-symmetry-enforced coupling of spin and angular momentum for p-orbital bosons