Project C1

Interaction-induced topological order in orbital optical lattices

Juliette Simonet, Andreas Hemmerich, Klaus Sengstock

Project C1 will explore novel metastable phases emerging in bosonic superfluids in higher Bloch bands of optical lattices. The interplay between the orbital degrees of freedom, appropriate lattice symmetry and interactions shall lead to exotic superfluids with unconventional phase orders and non-trivial topological properties. With the theory support from projects C7 and C9, we will develop dynamical processes to stabilize such metastable phases. Together with projects A6, B2, B3, B8, B9, C3 and C4, we will investigate how to extend the notion of topological invariants for interacting systems.