Colloquium: Artificial gauge potentials for neutral atoms

When a neutral atom moves in a properly designed laser field, its center-of-mass motion may mimic the dynamics of a charged particle in a magnetic field, with the emergence of a Lorentz-like force. In this Colloquium we present the physical principles at the basis of this artificial (synthetic) magnetism and relate the corresponding Aharonov-Bohm phase to the Berry's phase that emerges when the atom follows adiabatically one of its dressed...