Realizing Fractional Chern Insulators in Dipolar Spin Systems

Strongly correlated quantum systems can exhibit exotic behavior controlled by topology. We predict that the \ensuremath{\nu}=1/2fractional Chern insulator arises naturally in a two-dimensional array of driven, dipolar-interacting spins. As a specific implementation, we analyze how to prepare and detect synthetic gauge potentials for the rotational excitations of ultracold polar molecules trapped in a deep optical lattice. With the motion of...