Aharonov-Bohm effect in mesoscopic Bose-Einstein condensates

• Main Authors: Haug, Tobias, Heimonen, Hermanni, Dumke, Rainer, Kwek, Leong-Chuan, Amico, Luigi
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Science::Physics; Bose-Einstein Condensates; Cold Atoms & Matter Waves
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/141938
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Ultracold atoms in light-shaped potentials open up new ways to explore mesoscopic physics: Arbitrary trapping potentials can be engineered with only a change of the laser field. Here, we propose using ultracold atoms in light-shaped potentials to feasibly realize a cold-atom device to study one of the fundamental problems of mesoscopic physics, the Aharonov-Bohm effect: the interaction of particles with a magnetic field when traveling in a closed loop. Surprisingly, we find that the Aharonov-Bohm effect is washed out for interacting bosons, while it is present for fermions. We show that our atomic device has possible applications as a quantum simulator, Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and for tests of quantum foundation.