Bloch state tomography using Wilson lines.

Accepted version
Repository DOI

Type
Article
Change log
Authors
Li, Tracy 
Duca, Lucia 
Reitter, Martin 
Grusdt, Fabian 
Demler, Eugene 
Abstract

Topology and geometry are essential to our understanding of modern physics, underlying many foundational concepts from high-energy theories, quantum information, and condensed-matter physics. In condensed-matter systems, a wide range of phenomena stem from the geometry of the band eigenstates, which is encoded in the matrix-valued Wilson line for general multiband systems. Using an ultracold gas of rubidium atoms loaded in a honeycomb optical lattice, we realize strong-force dynamics in Bloch bands that are described by Wilson lines and observe an evolution in the band populations that directly reveals the band geometry. Our technique enables a full determination of band eigenstates, Berry curvature, and topological invariants, including single- and multiband Chern and Z₂ numbers.

Description
Keywords
cond-mat.quant-gas, cond-mat.quant-gas, cond-mat.mes-hall, cond-mat.other, quant-ph
Journal Title
Science
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0036-8075
1095-9203
Volume Title
352
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Sponsorship
This work was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the European Commision (UQUAM, AQuS), Nanosystems Initiative Munich, the Harvard Quantum Optics Center, the Harvard-MIT CUA, NSF Grant No. DMR-1308435, the DARPA OLE program, the AFOSR Quantum Simulation MURI, the ARO-MURI on Atomtronics, and the ARO-MURI Quism program.