  We present the design of a ring exchange interaction in cold atomic gases
subjected to an optical lattice using well understood tools for manipulating
and controlling such gases. The strength of this interaction can be tuned
independently and describes the correlated hopping of two bosons. We discuss a
setup where this coupling term may allows for the realization and observation
of exotic quantum phases, including a deconfined insulator described by the
Coulomb phase of a three-dimensional U(1) lattice gauge theory.
