Non-Abelian gauge potentials for ultra-cold atoms with degenerate dark states

Abstract

We show that the adiabatic motion of ultra-cold, multi-level atoms in spatially varying laser fields can give rise to effective non-Abelian gauge fields if degenerate adiabatic eigenstates of the atom-laser interaction exist. A pair of such degenerate dark states emerges e.g. if laser fields couple three internal states of an atom to a fourth common one under pairwise two--photon-resonance conditions. For this so-called tripod scheme we derive general conditions for truly non-Abelian gauge potentials and discuss special examples. In particular we show that using orthogonal laser beams with orbital angular momentum an effective magnetic field can be generated that has a monopole component.