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Topological quantum floating phase of dipolar bosons in an optical ladder

Henning Korbmacher1,*, Gustavo A. Domínguez-Castro1, Mateusz Łącki2, Jakub Zakrzewski2,3,†, and Luis Santos1,‡

  • *Contact author: henning.korbmacher@itp.uni-hannover.de
  • †Contact author: jakub.zakrzewski@uj.edu.pl
  • ‡Contact author: santos@itp.uni-hannover.de
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Phys. Rev. A 112, L011301 – Published 1 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lhfx-c4xr

Abstract

Ultracold dipolar hard-core bosons in optical ladders provide exciting possibilities for the quantum simulation of anisotropic spin ladders. We show that introducing a tilt along the rungs results in a rich phase diagram at unit rung filling. In particular, for a sufficiently strong dipolar strength, the interplay between the long-range tail of the dipolar interactions and the tilting leads to the emergence of a quantum floating phase, a critical phase with incommensurate density-density correlations. Interestingly, the floating phase is topological, constituting an intermediate gapless stage in the melting of a crystal into a gapped topological Haldane phase. This novel scenario for topological floating phases in dipolar spin ladders can be investigated in ongoing experiments.

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Phys. Rev. A 112, L011301– Published 1 July, 2025
  • Received 5 September 2024
  • Revised 27 February 2025
  • Accepted 10 June 2025
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