Momentum-space Aharonov-Bohm interferometry in Rashba spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Since the recent experimental realization of synthetic Rashba spin-orbit coupling paved a new avenue for exploring and engineering topological phases in ultracold atoms, a precise, solid detection of Berry phase has been desired for unequivocal characterization of system topology. Here, we propose a scheme to conduct momentum-space Aharonov-Bohm interferometry in a Rashba spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate with a sudden change of in-plane Zeeman field, capable of measuring the Berry phase of Rashba energy bands. We find that the Berry phase with the presence of a Dirac point is directly revealed by a robust dark interference fringe, and that as a function of external Zeeman field is characterized by the contrast of fringes. We also build a variational model describing the interference process with semiclassical equations of motion of essential dynamical quantities, which lead to agreeable trajectories and geometric phases with the real-time simulation of Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Our study would provide timely guidance for the experimental detection of Berry phase in ultracold atomic systems and help further investigation on their interference dynamics in momentum space.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Nested off-diagonal Bethe ansatz and exact solutions of the su(n) spin chain with generic integrable boundaries

The nested off-diagonal Bethe ansatz method is proposed to diagonalize multi-component integrable models with generic integrable boundaries. As an example, the exact solutions of the su(n)-invariant spin chain model with both periodic and non-diagonal boundaries are derived by constructing the nested T-Q relations based on the operator product identities among the fused transfer matrices and the asymptotic behavior of the transfer matrices.Comment: Published versio