Integer Quantum Hall State in Two-Component Bose Gases in a Synthetic Magnetic Field

Abstract: We study two-component (or pseudospin-1/2) Bose gases in a strong synthetic magnetic field. Using exact diagonalization, we show that a bosonic analogue of an integer quantum Hall state with no intrinsic topological order appears at the total filling factor \nu=1+1 when the strengths of intracomponent and intercomponent interactions are comparable with each other. This provides a prime example of a symmetry-protected topological phase in a controlled setting of quantum gases. The real-space entanglement spectrum of this state is found to be comprised of counter-propagating chiral modes consistent with the edge theory derived from the effective Chern-Simons theory.