Control of tripod-scheme cold-atom wavepackets by manipulating a non-Abelian vector potential

Tripod-scheme cold atoms interacting with laser beams have attracted considerable interest for their role in synthesizing effective non-Abelian vector potentials. Such effective vector potentials can be exploited to realize an all-optical imprinting of geometric phases onto matter waves. By working on carefully designed extensions of our previous work, we show that coherent lattice structure of cold-atom sub-wavepackets can be formed and that the non-Abelian Aharonov–Bohm effect can be easily manifested via the translational motion of cold atoms. We also show that by changing the frame of reference, effects due to a non-Abelian vector potential may be connected with a simple dynamical phase effect, and that under certain conditions it can be understood as an Abelian geometric phase in a different frame of reference. Results should help design better schemes for the control of cold-atom matter waves.