Probing the topological properties of the Jackiw-Rebbi model with light

The Jackiw-Rebbi model describes a one-dimensional Dirac field coupled to a soliton field and can be equivalently thought of as a model describing a Dirac field with a spatially dependent mass term. Neglecting the dynamics of the soliton field, a kink in the background soliton profile yields a topologically protected zero-energy mode for the field, which in turn leads to charge fractionalisation. We show here that the model, in the first quantised form, can be realised in a driven slow-light setup, where photons mimic the Dirac field and the soliton field can be implemented–and tuned–by adjusting optical parameters such as the atom-photon detuning. Furthermore, we discuss how the existence of the zero-mode and its topological stability can be probed naturally by studying the transmission spectrum. We conclude by analysing the robustness of our approach against possible experimental errors in engineering the Jackiw-Rebbi Hamiltonian in this optical setup.