"Ultracold atoms carrying orbital angular momentum: Engineering topological phases in lattices"

Abstract:

Tunnelling stands as a cornerstone of quantum mechanics, and the ability to manipulate it in systems of ultracold neutral atoms has attracted significant attention in recent years. In this presentation, we will explore ultracold atoms carrying Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) loaded in lattices of coplanar ring potentials in which complex tunnelling amplitudes appear naturally [1]. We will review recent results [2,3] demonstrating that these systems constitute a promising platform for engineering topological phases, either at the single-particle limit or in the presence of interactions.

[1] J. Polo, J. Mompart and V. Ahufinger, Geometrically induced complex tunnelings for ultracold atoms carrying orbital angular momentum. Phys. Rev. A 93, 033613 (2016).

[2] E. Nicolau, G. Pelegrı́, J. Polo, A. M. Marques, A. Daley, J. Mompart, R. G. Dias and V. Ahufinger. Ultracold atoms carrying orbital angular momentum: engineering topological phases in lattices. Europhysics Letters 145, 35001 (2024), Invited Perspective article and references therein.

[3] Y. Zhai, A. Usui, A. M. Marques, R. G. Dias and V. Ahufinger, Topological bound states in a lattice of rings with nearest-neighbour interactions, arXiv:2508.06272.  

Bio:

Verònica Ahufinger is Head of Academic Affairs at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO). In 2002, after finishing her PhD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), she moved as a Marie Curie Fellow to the Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany) and from 2005 to 2010, she was ICREA researcher. From November 2010 to April 2023, she was associate professor and from May 2023 to August 2025 full professor of the Physics Department at the UAB. She has 80 peer-reviewed publications and is co-author of a book for Oxford University Press with more than 4100 citations. She has supervised 8 PhD Thesis (currently 1 more), 11 Master Thesis and 36 final degree works. She was awarded with the PhD extraordinary award and the excellence research award of the UAB. From January 2011 to April 2014, she was Head of Studies of the Physics degree of the UAB and from June 2014 to September 2016, she was vice-dean of the Science Faculty. From July 2016 to July 2018, she was scientific collaborator of the Agencia Estatal de Investigación. For eight years she was Head of the Optics Unit of the Physics department at the UAB and from 2021 to 2025, she was the UAB coordinator of the interuniversity Photonics Master and the Europhotonics master.