TY - JOUR
T1 - Non-Abelian gauge potentials for ultracold atoms with degenerate dark states
AU - Ruseckas, J.
AU - Juzeliunas, Gediminas
AU - Ohberg, Patrik
AU - Fleischhauer, M.
PY - 2005/7/1
Y1 - 2005/7/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.010404
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.010404
M3 - Article
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 95
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 1
M1 - 010404
ER -