Chiral phase from three spin interactions in an optical lattice

A spin-1/2 chain model that includes three spin interactions can effectively describe the dynamics of two species of bosons trapped in an optical lattice with a triangular-ladder configuration. A perturbative theoretical approach and numerical study of its ground state is performed that reveals a rich variety of phases and criticalities. We identify phases with periodicity one, two or three, as well as critical points that belong in the same universality class as the Ising or the three-state Potts model. We establish a range of parameters, corresponding to a large degeneracy present between phases with period 2 and 3, that nests a gapless incommensurate chiral phase.