Ground State Properties of the 1/2 Flux Harper Hamiltonian

The Harper Hamiltonian describes the motion of charged particles in an applied magnetic field - the spectrum of which exhibits the famed Hofstadter's butterfly. Recent advances in driven optical lattices have made great strides in simulating nontrivial Hamiltonians, such as the Harper model, in the time-averaged sense. We report on the realization of the ground state of bosons in the Harper Hamiltonian for 1/2 flux per plaquette utilizing a tilted two-dimensional lattice with laser assisted tunneling. We detail progress in studying various ground state properties of the 1/2 flux Harper Hamiltonian including ground state degeneracies, gauge-dependent observables, effects of micromotion, adiabatic loading schemes, and emergence and decay of coherence. Additionally, we describe prospects for flux rectification using a period-tripled superlattice and generalizations to three dimensions.