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Published on: March 30, 2017
Non-Abelian gauge potentials for ultracold atoms with degenerate dark states
J Ruseckas1, G Juzeliūnas, P Ohberg
1Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy of Vilnius University, A. Gostauto 12, 01108 Vilnius, Lithuania.
Abstract:
We show that the adiabatic motion of ultracold, multilevel atoms in spatially varying laser fields can give rise to effective non-Abelian gauge fields if degenerate adiabatic eigenstates of the atom-laser interaction exist. A pair of such degenerate dark states emerges, e.g., if laser fields couple three internal states of an atom to a fourth common one under pairwise two-photon-resonance conditions. For this so-called tripod scheme we derive general conditions for truly non-Abelian gauge potentials and discuss special examples. In particular we show that using orthogonal laser beams with orbital angular momentum an effective magnetic field can be generated that has a monopole component.
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