Trapped fermi gases in rotating optical lattices: realization and detection of the topological hofstadter insulator
Date
2008
Authors
Umucalilar, R. O.
Zhai, H.
Oktel, M. Ö.
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
Co-Advisor
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Instructor
Source Title
Physical Review Letters
Print ISSN
0031-9007
Electronic ISSN
1079-7114
Publisher
The American Physical Society
Volume
100
Issue
7
Pages
Language
English
Type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Abstract
We consider a gas of noninteracting spinless fermions in a rotating optical lattice and calculate the density profile of the gas in an external confinement potential. The density profile exhibits distinct plateaus, which correspond to gaps in the single particle spectrum known as the Hofstadter butterfly. The plateaus result from insulating behavior whenever the Fermi energy lies within a gap. We discuss the necessary conditions to realize the Hofstadter insulator in a cold atom setup and show how the quantized Hall conductance can be measured from density profiles using the Středa formula.