Topological phases and collective modes in U(1) and SU(2) sectors of spin-orbit-coupled two-dimensional superfluid Fermi gases

Abstract

We study the emergence of finite-temperature topological phase transitions of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type and the collective mode spectrum of two-dimensional Fermi gases in the presence of attractive $s$-wave interactions, spin-orbit coupling, and Zeeman fields. We show that neglecting the spin-dependent phase shift on the fermionic wave function misses an important point. Including this spin-dependent shift, we derive the effective low-energy and long-wavelength quantum action for independent (unlocked) phase fluctuations in the U(1) (charge) and SU(2) (spin) sectors and show that at least two phase transitions occur because charge and spin degrees of freedom are coupled due to the presence of spin-orbit and Zeeman fields. Furthermore, we demonstrate that vortex and antivortex excitations are characterized by two topological quantum numbers, corresponding to the quantized circulation of charge and spin velocities. Finally, we show that there are two collective modes in the superfluid phase at low temperatures which arise due to the coupling between sound and transverse-spin waves.