Magnetic crystals and helical liquids in alkaline-earth fermionic gases.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26350624.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms9134 and PMC identifier 4579522.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The joint action of a magnetic field and of interactions is crucial for the appearance of exotic quantum phenomena, such as the quantum Hall effect. Owing to their rich nuclear structure, equivalent to an additional synthetic dimension, one-dimensional alkaline-earth(-like) fermionic gases with synthetic gauge potential and atomic contact repulsion may display similar related properties. Here we show the existence and the features of a hierarchy of fractional insulating and conducting states by means of analytical and numerical methods. We demonstrate that the gapped states are characterized by density and magnetic order emerging solely for gases with effective nuclear spin larger than 1/2, whereas the gapless phases can support helical modes. We finally argue that these states are related to an unconventional fractional quantum Hall effect in the thin-torus limit and that their properties can be studied in state-of-the-art laboratories.