Flavour-selective localization in interacting lattice fermions
D. Tusi, Lorenzo Franchi, Lorenzo Francesco Livi, Kristian Baumann, Daniel Benedicto Orenes, Lorenzo Del Re, R. E. Barfknecht, Tianwei Zhou, M. Inguscio, Giacomo Cappellini, Massimo Capone, Jacopo Catani, L. Fallani
Abstract
Abstract A large repulsion between particles in a quantum system can lead to their localization, an effect responsible for the Mott insulator phases in strongly correlated materials. In a system with multiple orbitals, an orbital-selective Mott insulator can form, where electrons in some orbitals are predicted to localize while others remain itinerant. Here we demonstrate a more general version of this phenomenon by observing flavour-selective localization in an atom-based quantum simulator. Our experiment realizes Fermi–Hubbard models with an SU(3) symmetry that can be broken using a tunable coupling between flavours. We observe an enhancement of the localization associated with a selective Mott transition and the emergence of flavour-dependent correlations. Our realization of flavour-selective Mott physics demonstrates the potential of cold atoms to simulate interacting multicomponent materials such as superconductors and topological insulators.