Quantum Cyclotron Orbits of a Neutral Atom Trapped in a Triple Well with a Synthetic Gauge Field

The strong effective magnetic fields with flux to the order of one flux quantum per plaquette has been realized for ultracold atoms, and the quantum cyclotron orbit of a single atom in a single plaquette exposed to the magnetic field was directly revealed recently [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 (2011) 255301]. We study the quantum cyclotron orbits of a bosonic atom in a triple well with a synthetic gauge field, and find that the dynamics of the atom in real space is similar to a classical dynamic billiard. It is interesting that the billiard-like motion is a signature of the quantum evolution of the three-level system, and its behaviors are determined by the ratio of the two energy gaps of the three energy levels.