Simulating a Mott insulator using attractive interaction

We study the particle-hole symmetry in the Hubbard model using ultracold fermionic atoms in an optical lattice. We demonstrate the mapping between charge and spin degrees of freedom and, in particular, show the occurrence of a state with “incompressible” magnetisation for attractive interactions. Our results present a novel approach to quantum simulation by giving access to strongly-correlated phases of matter through an experimental mapping to easier detectable observables.