Gapless Superfluid Phase Research Articles

Topological superfluid phases of an atomic Fermi gas with in- and out-of-plane Zeeman fields and equal Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

We analyze the effects of in- and out-of-plane Zeeman fields on the BCS-BEC evolution of a Fermi gas with equal Rashba-Dresselhaus (ERD) spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We show that the ground state of the system involves novel gapless superfluid phases that can be distinguished with respect to the topology of the momentum-space regions with zero excitation energy. For the BCS-like uniform superfluid phases with zero center-of-mass momentum, the zeros may correspond to one or two doubly-degenerate spheres, two or four spheres, two or four concave spheroids, or one or two doubly-degenerate circles, depending on the combination of Zeeman fields and SOC. Such changes in the topology signal a quantum phase transition between distinct superfluid phases, and leave their signatures on some thermodynamic quantities. We also analyze the possibility of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-like nonuniform superfluid phases with finite center-of-mass momentum and obtain an even richer phase diagram.

Gapless inhomogeneous superfluid phase with spin-dependent disorder

We show that the presence of a spin-dependent random potential in a superconductor or a superfluid atomic gas leads to distinct transitions at which the energy gap and average order parameter vanish, generating an intermediate gapless superfluid phase, in marked contrast to the case of spin-symmetric randomness where no such gapless superfluid phase is seen. By allowing the pairing amplitude to become inhomogeneous, the gapless superconducting phase persists up to considerably higher disorder compared with the prediction of Abrikosov–Gorkov. The low-lying excited states are located predominantly in regions where the pairing amplitude vanishes and coexist with the superfluid regions with a finite pairing. Our results are based on inhomogeneous Bogoliubov–de Gennes mean field theory for a two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model with spin-dependent disorder.

Interplay between temperature and trap effects in one-dimensional lattice systems of bosonic particles

We investigate the interplay of temperature and trap effects in particle systems at their quantum critical regime, such as cold bosonic atoms in optical lattices at the transitions between Mott-insulator and superfluid phases. The theoretical framework is provided by the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model in the presence of an external trapping potential, and the trap-size scaling theory describing the large trap-size behavior at a quantum critical point. We present numerical results for the low-temperature behavior of the particle density and the density-density correlation function at the Mott transitions, and within the gapless superfluid phase, in the hard-core limit.

Vortex line in spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gases

It has recently been shown that the spin-orbit coupling gives rise to topologically nontrivial and thermodynamically stable gapless superfluid phases when the pseudospin populations of an atomic Fermi gas are imbalanced, with the possibility of featuring Majorana zero-energy quasiparticles. In this paper, we consider a Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling, and use the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism to analyze a single vortex line along a finite cylinder with a periodic boundary condition. We show that the signatures for the appearance of core- and edge-bound states can be directly found in the density of single-particle states and particle-current density. In particular, we find that the pseudospin components counterflow near the edge of the cylinder, the strength of which increases with increasing spin-orbit coupling.

Mass-imbalanced Fermi gases with spin-orbit coupling

We use the mean-field theory to analyze the ground-state phase diagrams of spin-orbit coupled mass-imbalanced Fermi gases throughout the BCS-BEC evolution, including both the population-balanced and -imbalanced systems. Our calculations show that the competition between the mass and population imbalance and the Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling (SOC) gives rise to very rich phase diagrams, involving normal, superfluid and phase separated regions. In addition, we find quantum phase transitions between the topologically trivial gapped superfluid and the nontrivial gapless superfluid phases, opening the way for the experimental observation of exotic phenomena with cold atom systems.

Phase separation in a polarized Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling

We study the phase separation of a spin polarized Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling near a wide Feshbach resonance. As a result of the competition between spin-orbit coupling and population imbalance, the phase diagram for a uniform gas develops a rich structure of phase separation involving gapless superfluid states which are topologically non-trivial. We find that these novel gapless phases can be stabilized by intermediate spin-orbit coupling strengths. We then demonstrate the phase separation induced by an external trapping potential and discuss the optimal parameter region for the experimental observation of the gapless superfluid phases.

Mean-field analysis of quantum phase transitions in a periodic optical superlattice

In this paper we analyze the various phases exhibited by a system of ultracold bosons in a periodic optical superlattice using the mean field decoupling approximation. We investigate for a wide range of commensurate and incommensurate densities. We find the gapless superfluid phase, the gapped Mott insulator phase, and gapped insulator phases with distinct density wave orders.

Cooper pairing and BCS-BEC evolution in mixed-dimensional Fermi gases

Similar to what has recently been achieved with Bose-Bose mixtures [G. Lamporesi, J. Catani, G. Barontini, Y. Nishida, M. Inguscio, and F. Minardi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 153202 (2010)], mixed-dimensional Fermi-Fermi mixtures can be created by applying a species-selective one-dimensional optical lattice to a two-species Fermi gas ($\ensuremath{\sigma}\ensuremath{\equiv}{\ensuremath{\uparrow},\ensuremath{\downarrow}}$), in such a way that both species are confined to quasi--two-dimensional geometries determined by their hoppings along the lattice direction. We investigated the ground-state phase diagram of superfluidity for such mixtures in the BCS-BEC evolution, and found normal, gapped superfluid, gapless superfluid, and phase separated regions. In particular, we found a stable gapless superfluid phase where the unpaired $\ensuremath{\uparrow}$ and $\ensuremath{\downarrow}$ fermions coexist with the paired (or superfluid) ones in different momentum space regions. This phase is in some ways similar to the Sarma state found in mixtures with densities, but in our case, the gapless superfluid phase is unpolarized and most importantly it is stable against phase separation.

Quantum critical behavior and trap-size scaling of trapped bosons in a one-dimensional optical lattice

We study the quantum (zero-temperature) critical behaviors of confined particle systems described by the one-dimensional (1D) Bose-Hubbard model in the presence of a confining potential, at the Mott insulator to superfluid transitions, and within the gapless superfluid phase. Specifically, we consider the hard-core limit of the model, which allows us to study the effects of the confining potential by exact and very accurate numerical results. We analyze the quantum critical behaviors in the large trap-size limit within the framework of the trap-size scaling (TSS) theory, which introduces a new trap exponent $\ensuremath{\theta}$ to describe the dependence on the trap size. This study is relevant for experiments of confined quasi-1D cold atom systems in optical lattices. At the low-density Mott transition, TSS can be shown analytically within the spinless fermion representation of the hard-core limit. The trap-size dependence turns out to be more subtle in the other critical regions, when the corresponding homogeneous system has a nonzero filling $f$, showing an infinite number of level crossings of the lowest states when increasing the trap size. At the $n=1$ Mott transition, this gives rise to a modulated TSS: The TSS is still controlled by the trap-size exponent $\ensuremath{\theta}$, but it gets modulated by periodic functions of the trap size. Modulations of the asymptotic power-law behavior is also found in the gapless superfluid region, with additional multiscaling behaviors.

Collective modes in asymmetric ultracold Fermi systems

We derive the long wavelength effective action for the collective modes in systems of fermions interacting via a short-range s-wave attraction, featuring unequal chemical potentials for the two fermionic species (asymmetric systems). As a consequence of the attractive interaction, fermions form a condensate that spontaneously breaks the U(1) symmetry associated with total number conservation. Therefore at sufficiently small temperatures and asymmetries, the system is a superfluid. We reproduce previous results for the stability conditions of the system as a function of the four-fermion coupling and asymmetry. We obtain these results analyzing the coefficients of the low energy effective Lagrangian of the modes describing fluctuations in the magnitude (Higgs mode) and in the phase (Nambu–Goldstone, or Anderson–Bogoliubov, mode) of the difermion condensate. We find that for certain values of parameters, the mass of the Higgs mode decreases with increasing mismatch between the chemical potentials of the two populations, if we keep the scattering length and the gap parameter constant. Furthermore, we find that the energy cost for creating a position dependent fluctuation of the condensate is constant in the gapped region and increases in the gapless region. These two features may lead to experimentally detectable effects. As an example, we argue that if the superfluid is put in rotation, the square of the radius of the outer core of a vortex should sharply increase on increasing the asymmetry, when we pass through the relevant region in the gapless superfluid phase. Finally, by gauging the global U(1) symmetry, we relate the coefficients of the effective Lagrangian of the Nambu–Goldstone mode with the screening masses of the gauge field.

Temperature changes when adiabatically ramping up an optical lattice

When atoms are loaded into an optical lattice, the process of gradually turning on the lattice is almost adiabatic. In this paper, we investigate how the temperature changes when going from the gapless superfluid phase to the gapped Mott phase along isentropic lines. To do so we calculate the entropy in the single-band Bose–Hubbard model for various densities, interaction strengths and temperatures in one and two dimensions for homogeneous and trapped systems. Our theory is able to reproduce the experimentally observed visibilities and therefore strongly supports the view that current experiments remain in the quantum regime for the considered lattice depths with low temperatures and minimal heating.

Fermi gas near unitarity around four and two spatial dimensions

We construct systematic expansions around four and two spatial dimensions for a Fermi gas near the unitarity limit. Near four spatial dimensions such a Fermi gas can be understood as a weakly interacting system of fermionic and bosonic degrees of freedom. To the leading and next-to-leading orders in the expansion over $ϵ=4\ensuremath{-}d$, with $d$ being the dimensionality of space, we calculate the thermodynamic quantities and the fermion quasiparticle spectrum, both at unitarity and around the unitarity point. Then the phase structure of the polarized Fermi gas in the unitary regime is studied in the $ϵ$ expansion. At unitarity the unpolarized superfluid state and a fully polarized normal state are separated by a first order phase transition. However, on the BEC side of the unitarity point, in a certain range of the two-body binding energy, these two phases are separated in the phase diagram by more exotic phases, including gapless superfluid phases with one or two Fermi surfaces and a superfluid phase with a spatially varying condensate. We also show that the unitary Fermi gas near two spatial dimensions is weakly interacting, and calculate the thermodynamic quantities and the fermion quasiparticle spectrum in the expansion over $\overline{ϵ}=d\ensuremath{-}2$.

Phase diagram of a cold polarized Fermi gas

We propose a phase diagram for a cold polarized atomic Fermi gas with zero-range interaction. We identify four main phases in the plane of density and polarization: the superfluid phase, the normal phase, the gapless superfluid phase, and the modulated phase. We argue that there exists a Lifshitz point at the junction of the normal, the gapless superfluid, and the modulated phases, and a splitting point where the superfluid, the gapless superfluid, and the modulated phases meet. We show that the physics near the splitting point is universal and derive an effective field theory describing it. We also show that subregions with one and two Fermi surfaces exist within the normal and the gapless superfluid phases.