Imaginary magnetic fields for ultracold atoms

Abstract

We propose a four-level scheme for generating a uniform imaginary magnetic field for ultracold atoms using Raman coupling and state-dependent particle losses. Eliminating two lossy auxiliary states and subsequently projecting onto one of the two remaining Raman dressed atomic states, the atomic motion is affected by an imaginary vector potential with a constant curl corresponding to a spatially uniform imaginary synthetic magnetic field. We analytically derive the Gaussian wavepacket dynamics for atoms in such a synthetic magnetic field and study the width-dependent transport, which is unique to non-Hermitian systems. We find numerical agreement between the two-level non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and the adiabatic projection description, confirming the applicability of the latter adiabatic approach.