Synthetic tensor gauge fields

Abstract

Synthetic gauge fields have provided physicists with a unique tool to explore a wide range of fundamentally important phenomena. However, most experiments have been focusing on synthetic vector gauge fields. The very rich physics brought by coupling tensor gauge fields to fracton phase of matter remain unexplored in laboratories. Here, we propose schemes to realize synthetic tensor gauge fields that address dipoles instead of single-particles. A lattice tilted by a strong linear potential and a weak quadratic potential yields a rank-2 electric field for a lineon formed by a particle-hole pair. Such a rank-2 electric field leads to a new type of Bloch oscillations, which modulate the quadrupole moment and preserve the dipole moment of the system. In higher dimensions, the interplay between interactions and vector gauge potentials imprints a phase to the ring-exchange interaction and thus generates synthetic tensor gauge fields for planons. Such tensor gauge fields make it possible to realize a dipolar Harper-Hofstadter model in laboratories. The resultant dipolar Chern insulators feature chiral edge currents of dipoles in the absence of net charge currents.