Accessing unconventional quantum phenomena using synthetic gauge fields

The recent realization of synthetic gauge fields, using either the Raman scheme or shaken lattices, provides physicists a new means to control ultracold atoms. This talk will address how to use such synthetic gauge fields to access and explore a variety of unconventional quantum phenomena that are difficult to reach in other systems. I will first discuss a quartic dispersion that leads to the absence of a condensate even at zero temperature in two dimensions. This offers physicists an ideal simulator of the quantum Lifshitz model for realizing a two-dimensional algebraic quantum liquid and directly visualizing the deconfinement transition of vortices. I will then discuss schemes for studying a number of topological phenomena in ultracold atoms, such as topological flat bands, quantum anomalous hall effect, and Weyl points in a band structure. Thanks to photon-assisted band hybridizations in shaken lattices, rich topological phenomena naturally emerge without resorting to extra external fields. These examples compose an overture to a new era that will be brought by the interplay between synthetic gauge fields and the highly tunable ultracold atoms.