Engineering p-wave interactions in ultracold atoms using nanoplasmonic traps.

Abstract

Engineering strong p-wave interactions between fermions is one of the challenges in modern quantum physics. Such interactions are responsible for a plethora of fascinating quantum phenomena, such as topological quantum liquids and exotic superconductors. Here we propose a method to generate these fermionic interactions by combining recent developments in nanoplasmonics with progress in realizing laser-induced gauge fields. Nanoplasmonics allows for strong confinement, leading to a geometric resonance in the atom-atom scattering. In combination with the laser coupling of the atomic states, this is shown to result in the desired interaction. We illustrate how this scheme can be used for the stabilization of strongly correlated fractional quantum Hall states in ultracold fermionic gases.