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Simulating Weyl points and nodal loops in an optical superlattice

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Abstract

We propose a scheme to simulate Weyl points and nodal loops with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice that is subjected to realizable synthetic magnetic field and synthetic dimension. We show that a Hofstadter-like Hamiltonian with a cyclically parameterized on-site energy term can be realized in a tunable two-dimensional optical superlattice, based on the laser-assisted atomic tunneling method. This model effectively describes a three-dimensional periodic lattice system under magnetic fluxes, where a synthetic dimension is encoded by a cyclical phase of the optical lattice potential. For different atomic hopping configurations, the single-particle bands are demonstrated to, respectively, exhibit Weyl points and nodal loops in the extended three-dimensional Brillouin zone. Furthermore, we illustrate that the mimicked Weyl points and nodal loops can be experimentally detected by measuring the atomic transfer fraction in Bloch–Zener oscillations.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Z.-Y. Xue, F. Mei, and S.-L. Zhu for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the NSFC (Grant No. 11604103), the NKRDP of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0301803), the NSF of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2016A030313436), the FDYT (Grant No. 2015KQNCX023), and the Startup Foundation of SCNU.

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  1. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, SPTE, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Dan-Wei Zhang

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Zhang, DW. Simulating Weyl points and nodal loops in an optical superlattice. Quantum Inf Process 15, 4477–4487 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-016-1428-3

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