We investigate topological phase transitions driven by interaction and identify a topological Mott insulator state in one-dimensional fermionic optical superlattices through a numerical density-matrix renormalization-group method. Remarkably, the low-energy edge excitations change from spin-1/2 fermionic single-particle modes to spin-1 bosonic collective modes across the phase transition. Due to spin-charge separation, the low-energy theory is governed by an effective spin superexchange model, whereas the charge degree of freedom is fully gapped out. Such topological Mott state can be characterized by a spin Chern number and gapless magnon modes protected by a finite spin gap. The proposed experimental setup is simple and may pave the way for the experimental observation of exotic topological Mott states.

• Received 20 May 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.100.023616