Some topological states in one-dimensional cold atomic systems

Ultracold atoms trapped in optical lattices nowadays have been widely used to mimic various models from condensed-matter physics. Recently, many great experimental progresses have been achieved for producing artificial magnetic field and spin–orbit coupling in cold atomic systems, which turn these systems into a new platform for simulating topological states. In this paper, we give a review focusing on quantum simulation of topologically protected soliton modes and topological insulators in one-dimensional cold atomic system. Firstly, the recent achievements towards quantum simulation of one-dimensional models with topological non-trivial states are reviewed, including the celebrated Jackiw–Rebbi model and Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model. Then, we will introduce a dimensional reduction method for systematically constructing high dimensional topological states in lower dimensional models and review its applications on simulating two-dimensional topological insulators in one-dimensional optical superlattices.