Symmetry-protected topological phases of alkaline-earth cold fermionic atoms in one dimension

by Philippe Lecheminant (Univ. de Cergy-Pontoise)

Friday 19 Apr 2013, 08:00 → 09:00 Europe/Zurich

EPFL, Auditoire du BSP Cubotron

Topological ordered phases have attracted much interest over the years. In one dimension (1D), the concept of topological phases is not so well defined since all gapful 1D phase have short-range entanglement. However, in presence of a symmetry, a gapful phase might be different from a trivial phase. In this respect, one defines the class of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase introduced by Wen et al. In this talk, we will discuss the possible stabilization of 1D SPT phases in the context of cold fermions based on alkaline-earth or ytterbium atoms loaded into 1D optical lattice. By means of complementary techniques, we will show that new SPT phases, with higher SU(N) symmetry, emerge. Such phases turn out to be the generalization of the famous Haldane phase of the spin-1 SU(2) Heisenberg chain.