Cavity-induced generation of nontrivial topological states in a two-dimensional Fermi gas

We propose how topologically nontrivial states can dynamically organize in a fermionic quantum gas that is confined to a two-dimensional optical lattice potential and coupled to the field of an optical cavity. The spontaneously emerging cavity field induces, together with coherent pump laser fields, a dynamical gauge field for the atoms. Upon adiabatic elimination of the cavity degree of freedom, the system is described by an effective Hofstadter model with a self-consistency condition that determines the tunneling amplitude along the cavity direction. The fermions are found to self-organize into topologically nontrivial states that carry an extended edge state for a finite system size. Due to the dissipative nature of the cavity field, the topological steady states are protected from external perturbations.