Extracting the Chern Number from the Dynamics of a Fermi Gas: Implementing a Quantum Hall Bar for Cold Atoms

Alexandre Dauphin and Nathan Goldman
Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 135302 – Published 26 September 2013
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Abstract

We propose a scheme to measure the quantized Hall conductivity of an ultracold Fermi gas initially prepared in a topological Chern insulating phase and driven by a constant force. We show that the time evolution of the center of mass, after releasing the cloud, provides a direct and clear signature of the topologically invariant Chern number. We discuss the validity of this scheme, highlighting the importance of driving the system with a sufficiently strong force to displace the cloud over measurable distances while avoiding band-mixing effects. The unusual shapes of the driven atomic cloud are qualitatively discussed in terms of a semiclassical approach.

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  • Received 11 June 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.135302

© 2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Alexandre Dauphin1,2,* and Nathan Goldman3,†

  • 1Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 231, Campus Plaine, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
  • 2Departamento de Física Teórica I, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain
  • 3Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, UPMC, ENS, 24 rue Lhomond, F-75005 Paris, France

  • *adauphin@ulb.ac.be
  • ngoldman@ulb.ac.be

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Issue

Vol. 111, Iss. 13 — 27 September 2013

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