Induced instability for boson-fermion mixed condensates of alkali-metal atoms due to the attractive boson-fermion interaction

Abstract

Instabilities for boson-fermion mixed condensates of trapped Alkali atoms due to the boson-fermion attractive interaction are studied using a variational method. Three regions are shown for their instabilities according to the boson-fermion interaction strength: stable, meta-stable and unstable ones. The stability condition is obtained analytically from the asymptotic expansion of the variational total energy. The life-time of metastable states is discussed for tunneling decay, and is estimated to be very long. It suggests that, except near the unstable border, meta-stable mixed condensate should be almost-stable against clusterizations. The critical border between meta-stable and unstable phases is calculated numerically and is shown to be consistent with the M{\o}lmer scaling condition.