SO(3) "Nuclear Physics" with ultracold Gases

Mayo 28, 2018
De 3:00pm hasta 4:00pm

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Theoretical Physics, general interest
Speaker: 
Enrique Rico
Institution: 
IKERBASQUE. UPV/EHU
Location&Place: 

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Abstract: 

An ab initio calculation of nuclear physics from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental SU(3) gauge theory of the strong interaction, remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we discuss the emergence of key elements of nuclear physics using an SO(3) lattice gauge theory as a toy model for QCD. We show that this model is accessible to state-of-the-art quantum simulation experiments with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. First, we demonstrate that our model shares characteristic many-body features with QCD, such as the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry, its restoration at finite baryon density, as well as the existence of few-body bound states. Then we show that in the one-dimensional case, the dynamics in the gauge invariant sector can be encoded as a spin S=3/2 Heisenberg model, i.e., as quantum magnetism, which has a natural realization with bosonic mixtures in optical lattices, and thus sheds light on the connection between non-Abelian gauge theories and quantum magnetism.

(Based on: E. Rico, M. Dalmonte, P. Zoller, D. Banerjee, M. Bögli, P. Stebler, U.J. Wiese
Annals Phys. 393, 466-483 (2018)
arXiv:1802.00022)