Inhomogeneous Synthetic Fluxes in Optical Lattices

Abstract

Synthetic gauge fields in optical lattices are usually engineered to realize a uniform magnetic flux. Here, we propose a scheme to generate spatially inhomogeneous fluxes and demonstrate how such fluxes reshape the single-particle spectrum. Within Wannier--Stark-assisted tunneling, onsite modulation produces a plaquette flux that depends on the orientation of the static tilt, whereas laser-assisted tunneling (LAT) does not. Using LAT, two coherent Raman processes with different momentum transfers imprint a dimerized Peierls phase that alternates the flux between neighboring plaquettes of a square lattice while keeping the mean flux fixed. A bond-selective Raman phase extends the scheme to the kagome lattice, where a parameter ξ redistributes the flux between triangles and hexagons at fixed flux per unit cell. The Hofstadter--Rammal spectrum of the bipartite square lattice retains chiral symmetry for all ξ, whereas the kagome lattice lacks this symmetry, and its flux periodicity and reflection symmetries survive only at special values of ξ. As ξ is reduced, the anomalous Landau levels of the kagome singular flat band are compressed toward the flat-band energy and evolve into a degenerate zero-energy manifold at ξ=0 with compactly localized states. The dynamical structure factor, accessible through Bragg scattering, resolves this evolution as a Rydberg-like series of peaks whose spectral span tracks the width of the anomalous-level tower and vanishes as ξ→0. We discuss the frequency resolution and temperature required for its observation.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{datta2026inhomogeneous,
  title = {{Inhomogeneous Synthetic Fluxes in Optical Lattices}},
  author = {Soujanya Datta and Kush Saha and Krishanu Roychowdhury},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.03616},
  eprint = {2611.03616},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03616},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Inhomogeneous Synthetic Fluxes in Optical Lattices
AU  - Soujanya Datta
AU  - Kush Saha
AU  - Krishanu Roychowdhury
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/02
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.03616
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03616
AB  - Synthetic gauge fields in optical lattices are usually engineered to realize a uniform magnetic flux. Here, we propose a scheme to generate spatially inhomogeneous fluxes and demonstrate how such fluxes reshape the single-particle spectrum. Within Wannier--Stark-assisted tunneling, onsite modulation produces a plaquette flux that depends on the orientation of the static tilt, whereas laser-assisted tunneling (LAT) does not. Using LAT, two coherent Raman processes with different momentum transfers imprint a dimerized Peierls phase that alternates the flux between neighboring plaquettes of a square lattice while keeping the mean flux fixed. A bond-selective Raman phase extends the scheme to the kagome lattice, where a parameter ξ redistributes the flux between triangles and hexagons at fixed flux per unit cell. The Hofstadter--Rammal spectrum of the bipartite square lattice retains chiral symmetry for all ξ, whereas the kagome lattice lacks this symmetry, and its flux periodicity and reflection symmetries survive only at special values of ξ. As ξ is reduced, the anomalous Landau levels of the kagome singular flat band are compressed toward the flat-band energy and evolve into a degenerate zero-energy manifold at ξ=0 with compactly localized states. The dynamical structure factor, accessible through Bragg scattering, resolves this evolution as a Rydberg-like series of peaks whose spectral span tracks the width of the anomalous-level tower and vanishes as ξ→0. We discuss the frequency resolution and temperature required for its observation.
ER  -

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