10.6084/m9.figshare.1012043.v1 Martin Kiffner Martin Kiffner Wenhui Li Wenhui Li Dieter Jaksch Dieter Jaksch (a) Potential curve <sub>w</sub> of the well state in the <em>x</em>–<em>y</em> plane as a function of scaled internuclear spacing <em>R</em>/<em>R</em><sub>0</sub> IOP Publishing 2013 gauge fields Rydberg atoms abstract Zeeman splitting figure configuration adiabatic motion Potential curve spacing boldsymbol motion couples abelian function parameter internuclear technique Ground State interaction Atomic Physics Molecular Physics 2013-06-24 00:00:00 Figure https://iop.figshare.com/articles/figure/_a_Potential_curve_img_src_http_ej_iop_org_icons_Entities_epsi_gif_alt_epsilon_align_baseline_sub_w_/1012043 <p><strong>Figure 3.</strong> (a) Potential curve <sub>w</sub> of the well state in the <em>x</em>–<em>y</em> plane as a function of scaled internuclear spacing <em>R</em>/<em>R</em><sub>0</sub>. (b) The <em>z</em>-component of the artificial magnetic field for \boldsymbol{R} in the <em>x</em>–<em>y</em> plane. In this spatial configuration, the <em>x</em>- and <em>y</em>-components of \boldsymbol{B} are zero. The parameters in (a) and (b) are Δ = −3|δ| (solid red line) and Δ = −1.3|δ| (black dashed line).</p> <p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>We show that the dipole–dipole interaction between two Rydberg atoms can lead to substantial Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields acting on the relative motion of the two atoms. We demonstrate how the gauge fields can be evaluated by numerical techniques. In the case of adiabatic motion in a single internal state, we show that the gauge fields give rise to a magnetic field that results in a Zeeman splitting of the rotational states. In particular, the ground state of a molecular potential well is given by the first excited rotational state. We find that our system realizes a synthetic spin–orbit coupling where the relative atomic motion couples to two internal two-atom states. The associated gauge fields are non-Abelian.</p>