Observing Zitterbewegung with ultracold atoms.
We propose an optical lattice scheme which would permit the experimental observation of Zitterbewegung (ZB) with ultracold, neutral atoms. A four-level tripod variant of the setup for stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) has previously been proposed for generating non-Abelian gauge fields. Dirac-like Hamiltonians, which exhibit ZB, are simple examples of such non-Abelian gauge fields; we show how a variety of them can arise, and how ZB can be observed, in a tripod system. We predict that the ZB should occur at experimentally accessible frequencies and amplitudes.
Joint Quantum Institute, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA.
J Y
JY
Vaishnav
Charles W
CW
Clark