Topological phase transitions in the non-Abelian honeycomb lattice.

Ultracold Fermi gases trapped in honeycomb optical lattices provide an intriguing scenario, where relativistic quantum electrodynamics (QED) can be tested. Here, we generalize this system to non-Abelian QED, where massless Dirac fermions interact with effective non-Abelian gauge fields. We show how in this setup a variety of topological phase transitions occur, which arise due to massless fermion pair production events, as well as pair annihilation events of two kinds: spontaneous and strongly interacting induced. Moreover, such phase transitions can be controlled and characterized in optical lattice experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]