Resonating valence bonds and spinon superfluidity in a cavity

Date

May 18, 2018

Time

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Speaker

Dr. Ganesh Ramachandran

Affiliation

The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India

Language

en

Main Topic

Materialien

Other Topics

Materialien, Physik

Host

Grit Rötzer

Description

Resonating valence bond (RVB) states are a class of quantum many-body wavefunctions that were first studied in organic chemistry. They play a key role in modern condensed physics as the source of ideas such as topological order. We propose a scheme to synthesize RVB states in cavity-based experiments using the notion of wavefunction collapse. We consider a cavity QED setup with two-level atoms coupled to a common photon mode. In the lossy cavity limit, this can be configured as a Stern-Gerlach experiment wherein the emission of photons is measured. This collapses the wavefunction of the two-level atoms onto a class of RVB states. We show that this naturally gives rise to a superconductor-like phase with Cooper-like pairs of `spinons’ (unpaired spins). We also demonstrate an elegant quantum phase transition from `darkness’ (trapping of photons within the cavity due to quantum interference) to `light’ (emission of photons from the cavity). .

Links

• Seminars at the IFW

Last modified: May 18, 2018, 9:37:56 AM