Particle number fractionilization of an atomic Fermi-Dirac gas in an optical lattice

Ruostekoski, Janne and Dunne, Gerald V. and Javanainen, Juha (2002) Particle number fractionilization of an atomic Fermi-Dirac gas in an optical lattice. Physical review letters, 88 (18). ISSN 1079-7114

Abstract

We show that a dilute 2-species gas of Fermi-Dirac alkali-metal atoms in a periodic optical lattice may exhibit fractionization of particle number when the two components are coupled via a coherent electromagnetic field with a topologically nontrivial phase profile. This results in fractional eigenvalues of the spin operator with vanishing fluctuations. The fractional part can be accurately controlled by modifying the effective detuning of the electromagnetic field.