Anisotropy-induced Coulomb phase and quasiparticle zoo in the atomic monopole-spin hybrid system

Quantum simulation of a monopole-spin hybrid system is performed on the basis of a dipolar ultracold gas in a ladder lattice. The site-occupation states of the dipolar ladder lattice gas can spontaneously emulate both the monopole and spin excitations. The hopping of the atoms induces a particle conversion process between spin and monopole pairs, and the dipole-dipole interaction determines the spin-spin, spin-monopole, and monopole-monopole interactions. The anisotropic nature of the dipole-dipole interaction allows hereby for a flexible engineering of the designed hybrid system, and for a significant tunability of the interaction strengths. As a result, we encounter a rich phase diagram, and specifically a self-assembled Coulomb phase arises, in which monopoles and spins coexist and are orderly arranged according to the local Gauss's law. The Coulomb phase hosts a zoo of different types of quasiparticles and provides the possibility to simulate various phenomena in particle physics, such as a degenerate vacuum, particle decay, and conversion processes. Our work provides a significant extension of the scope of quantum simulations based on the anisotropy of dipolar interactions.