Measuring topology in complex systems

Emilio Alba

Instituto de Fisica Fundamental, CSIC, Serrano 113b, 28006, Madrid, Spain

Time-of-flight imaging is a powerful measurement tool for measuring topology in optical lattices [1]. In this talk we will analyze the information provided by these measurements in a model for topological superconductors (which is adiabatically connected to Kitaevs honeycomb model and signals the presence of Majorana modes [2]) and interacting Chern insulators, and find that entanglement and interactions affect time-of-flight observables in a distinct manner thus making them a resource for characterizing highly correlated systems.

[1] E. Alba, X. Fernández-Gonzalvo, J. Mur-Petit, J.K. Pachos and J.J. Garcia-Ripoll, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 235301 (2011).

[2] J.K. Pachos, E. Alba, V. Lahtinen and J.J. Garcia-Ripoll, Phys. Rev. A 88, 013622 (2013).