Observation of interaction-induced phenomena of relativistic quantum mechanics

Abstract

AbstractRelativistic quantum mechanics has been developed for nearly a century to characterize the high-energy physics in quantum domain, and various intriguing phenomena without low-energy counterparts have been revealed. Recently, with the discovery of Dirac cone in graphene, quantum materials and their classical analogies provide the second approach to exhibit the relativistic wave equation, making large amounts of theoretical predications become reality in the lab. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a third way to get into the relativistic physics. Based on the extended one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, we show that two strongly correlated bosons can exhibit Dirac-like phenomena, including the Zitterbewegung and Klein tunneling, in the presence of giant on-site and nearest-neighbor interactions. By mapping eigenstates of two correlated bosons to modes of designed circuit lattices, the interaction-induced Zitterbewegung and Klein tunneling are verified by measuring the voltage dynamics. Our finding not only demonstrates a way to exhibit the relativistic physics, but also provides a flexible platform to further investigate many interesting phenomena related to the particle interaction in experiments.