Use of quantum quenches to probe the equilibrium current patterns of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice

Abstract

Atomic bosons and fermions in an optical lattice can realize a variety of interesting condensed matter states that support equilibrium current patterns in the presence of synthetic magnetic fields or non-abelian gauge fields. As a route to probing such mass currents, we propose a nonequilibrium quantum quench of the Hamiltonian that dynamically converts the current patterns into experimentally measurable real-space density patterns. We illustrate how a specific such "unidirectional" quench of the optical lattice can be used to uncover checkerboard and stripe current orders in lattice Bose superfluids and Fermi gases, as well as chiral edge currents in an integer quantum Hall state.

5 pages, 4 figures, Slightly revised, to appear in Phys. Rev. A (Rapid Communication)

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• Optical Flux Lattices for Ultracold Atomic Gases
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• Direct imaging of topological edge states in cold-atom systems
• Tomography of band insulators from quench dynamics
• Extracting the Chern number from the dynamics of a Fermi gas: Implementing a quantum Hall bar for cold atoms
• Chiral Mott insulator with staggered loop currents in the fully frustrated Bose Hubbard model
• Counter-propagating edge modes and topological phases of a kicked quantum Hall system
• Geometric quench and nonequilibrium dynamics of fractional quantum Hall states
• Single-site-resolved measurement of the current statistics in optical lattices
• Competing Chiral Orders in the Topological Haldane-Hubbard Model of Spin-1/2 Fermions and Bosons
• Anisotropic quantum quench in the presence of frustration or background gauge fields: A probe of bulk currents and topological chiral edge modes
• Controlling Transport of Ultra-Cold Atoms in 1D Optical Lattices with Artificial Gauge Fields
• Spin-orbit Coupling in Optical lattices
• Quench dynamics and scaling laws in topological nodal loop semimetals
• Formation and detection of a chiral orbital Bose liquid in an optical lattice
• Bose-Hubbard ladder subject to effective magnetic field: quench dynamics in a harmonic trap
• Spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking for spinless fermions on a triangular lattice
• Hofstadter butterfly in the Falicov-Kimball model on some finite 2D lattices
• Wavepacket dynamics on Chern band lattices in a trap
• Response of fermions in Chern bands to spatially local quenches
• Fractional Spin Quantum Hall Effect in Weakly Coupled Spin Chain Arrays
• Equilibrium angular momentum and edge current in Bose-condensed cold atom systems with k-space Berry curvature
• Transport through two interacting resonant levels connected by a Fermi sea
• Few-particle dynamics of fractional quantum Hall lattice models
• Detecting degenerate bands topological invariants in optical lattice