P-wave Feshbach Resonance Research Articles

Stability of a fully polarized ultracold Fermi gas near zero-crossing of a p-wave Feshbach resonance

We consider a fully polarized ultracold Fermi gas interacting through a p-wave Feshbach resonance. Using a two-channel model, we find the effective potential at the point where the p-wave scattering length goes to zero. Here the effective interaction provides attraction and one can therefore ask about the stability of the system. We calculate the energy density of the system in the Thomas-Fermi approximation, determine the profile of the gas, and the critical number of particle in the system as function of the relevant interaction parameters. The instability can be inferred from a simple breathing mode argument which explains the scaling found numerically. The critical particle number turns out to be extremely large unless the external confinement is very tight. We therefore conclude that the effect is insignificant for standard trapping potentials and that the magnetic dipole interaction is the important term at zero scattering length. However, for tight confinement as in an optical lattice higher-order corrections can become important.

Textures and Exotic Vortices in Neutral Fermion Superfluids

There has been intense interest in various Fermion superfluids in neutral atom liquids and gases, including chiral p-wave pairing in 3He-A phase and Feshbach-resonanced 6Li atom gases and d-wave pairing in atom gases. It is particularly interesting to find exotic vortices and associated low-lying Fermionic excitations under rotation. Here we report on our efforts of those topics: (1) Majorana Fermion in chiral superfluids near a p-wave Feshbach resonance. (2) Possible half-quantum vortices in p-wave superfluids of trapped Fermion atom gases. (3) Stability of a half-quantum vortex in rotating superfluid 3He-A between parallel plates. (4) Majorana bound state in rotating superfluid 3He-A between parallel plates. (5) Non-Abelian Fractional vortex in d-wave Feshbach resonance superfluids. We will summarize some of those works in a coherent manner in order to bridge the understanding between cold atom community and superfluid 3He community by stressing the importance of cross fertilization between them.

P-Wave Resonant Bose Gas: A Finite-Momentum Spinor Superfluid

We show that a degenerate gas of two-species bosonic atoms interacting through a p-wave Feshbach resonance (as realized in, e.g., a (85)Rb -- (87)Rb mixture) exhibits a finite-momentum atomic-molecular superfluid (AMSF), sandwiched by a molecular p-wave (orbital spinor) superfluid and by an s-wave atomic superfluid at large negative and positive detunings, respectively. The magnetic field can be used to tune the modulation wave vector of the AMSF state, as well as to drive quantum phase transitions in this rich system.

Analytical solutions for two atoms in a harmonic trap:p-wave interactions

We derive analytical solutions for the system of two ultracold spin-polarized fermions interacting in p wave and confined in an axially symmetric harmonic trap. To this end we utilize p-wave pseudopotential with an energy-dependent scattering volume. This allows to describe the scattering in tight trapping potentials in the presence of scattering resonances. We verify predictions of the pseudopotential treatment for some model interaction potential, obtaining an excellent agreement with exact energy levels. Then we turn to the experimentally relevant case of neutral atom interactions in the vicinity of a p-wave Feshbach resonance. In the framework of the multichannel quantum-defect theory we derive relatively simple formula for an energy-dependent scattering volume, and later we apply it to investigate the energy spectrum of trapped atoms close to the p-wave Feshbach resonance.

Px+ipySuperfluid froms-Wave Interactions of Fermionic Cold Atoms

Two-dimensional (p(x)+ip(y)) superfluids or superconductors offer a playground for studying intriguing physics such as quantum teleportation, non-Abelian statistics, and topological quantum computation. Creating such a superfluid in cold fermionic atom optical traps using p-wave Feshbach resonance is turning out to be challenging. Here we propose a method to create a p(x)+ip(y) superfluid directly from an s-wave interaction making use of a topological Berry phase, which can be artificially generated. We discuss ways to detect the spontaneous Hall mass current, which acts as a diagnostic for the chiral p-wave superfluid.

Energy levels of two identical fermions in a harmonic trap near ap-wave Feshbach resonance

We investigate theoretically the energy levels of two identical Fermions in a harmonic potential well under p-wave Feshbach resonance. The magnetic fields needed to affect the energy levels differ strongly among the levels, and they can be at values far from the free space resonant field.

Predicted signatures ofp-wave superfluid phases and Majorana zero modes of fermionic atoms in rf absorption

We study the superfluid phases of quasi-2D atomic Fermi gases interacting via a p-wave Feshbach resonance. We calculate the absorption spectra of these phases under a hyperfine transition, for both non-rotating and rotating superfluids. We show that one can identify the different phases of the p-wave superfluid from the absorption spectrum. The absorption spectrum shows clear signatures of the existence of Majorana zero modes at the cores of vortices of the weakly-pairing $p_x+ip_y$ phase.

P-Wave Feshbach Molecules

We have produced and detected molecules using a p-wave Feshbach resonance between 40K atoms. We have measured the binding energy and lifetime for these molecules and we find that the binding energy scales approximately linearly with the magnetic field near the resonance. The lifetime of bound p-wave molecules is measured to be 1.0+/-0.1 ms and 2.3+/-0.2 ms for the ml=+/-1 and ml=0 angular momentum projections, respectively. At magnetic fields above the resonance, we detect quasibound molecules whose lifetime is set by the tunneling rate through the centrifugal barrier.

BCS-BEC CROSSOVER IN A SUPERFLUID FERMI GAS

We discuss the superfluid phase transition in a gas of Fermi atoms with a Feshbach resonance. A tunable pairing interaction associated with the Feshbach resonance is shown to naturally lead to the BCS-BEC crossover, where the character of superfluidity continuously changes from the weak-coupling Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) type to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of tightly bound molecules, as one decreases the threshold energy 2ν of the Feshbach resonance. We also discuss effects of a trap, as well as the p-wave BCS-BEC crossover adjusted by a p-wave Feshbach resonance.

Pairing of a harmonically trapped fermionic Tonks-Girardeau gas

The fermionic Tonks-Girardeau (FTG) gas is a one-dimensional spin-polarized Fermi gas with infinitely strong attractive zero-range odd-wave interactions, arising from a confinement-induced resonance reachable via a three-dimensional p-wave Feshbach resonance. We investigate the off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO) of the FTG gas subjected to a longitudinal harmonic confinement by analyzing the two-particle reduced density matrix for which we derive a closed-form expression. Using a variational approach and numerical diagonalization we find that the largest eigenvalue of the two-body density matrix is of order N/2, where N is the total particle number, and hence a partial ODLRO is present for a FTG gas in the trap.

Pairing symmetry in an anisotropic Fermi superfluid under ap-wave Feshbach resonance

The anisotropic Fermi superfluid of ultra-cold Fermi atoms under the p-wave Feshbach resonance is studied theoretically. The pairing symmetry of the ground state is determined by the strength of the atom-atom magnetic dipole interaction. It is $k_z$ for a strong dipole interaction; while it becomes $k_z - i \beta k_y$, up to a rotation about z, for a weak one (Here $\beta$ < 1 is a numerical coefficient). By changing the external magnetic field or the atomic gas density, a phase transition between these two states can be driven. We discuss how the pairing symmetry of the ground state can be determined in the time-of-flight experiments.

P-Wave Interactions in Low-Dimensional Fermionic Gases

We study a spin-polarized degenerate Fermi gas interacting via a p-wave Feshbach resonance in an optical lattice. The strong confinement available in this system allows us to realize one- and two-dimensional gases and, therefore, to restrict the asymptotic scattering states of atomic collisions. When aligning the atomic spins along (or perpendicular to) the axis of motion in a one-dimensional gas, scattering into channels with the projection of the angular momentum of /m/ = 1 (or m = 0) can be inhibited. In two and three dimensions, we observe the doublet structure of the p-wave Feshbach resonance. For both the one-dimensional and the two-dimensional gases, we find a shift of the position of the resonance with increasing confinement due to the change in collisional energy. In a three-dimensional optical lattice, the losses on the Feshbach resonance are completely suppressed.

Resonant scattering properties close to ap-wave Feshbach resonance

We present a semi-analytical treatment of both the elastic and inelastic collisional properties near a p-wave Feshbach resonance. Our model is based on a simple three channel system that reproduces more elaborate coupled-channel calculations. We stress the main differences between s-wave and p-wave scattering. We show in particular that, for elastic and inelastic scattering close to a p-wave Feshbach resonance, resonant processes dominate over the low-energy behaviour.

Quantum Phase Transitions across a p-Wave Feshbach Resonance

We study a single-species polarized Fermi gas tuned across a narrow p-wave Feshbach resonance. We show that in the course of a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC)-BCS crossover, the system can undergo a magnetic-field-tuned quantum phase transition from a px-wave to a px+ipy-wave superfluid. The latter state, that spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry, furthermore undergoes a topological px+ipy to px+ipy transition at zero chemical potential mu. In two dimensions, for mu > 0 it is characterized by a Pfaffian ground state exhibiting topological order and non-Abelian excitations familiar from fractional quantum Hall systems.

Quantum Phase Transition in the BCS-to-BEC Evolution of p-wave Fermi Gases

We discuss the possibility of a quantum phase transition in ultra-cold spin-polarized Fermi gases which exhibit a p-wave Feshbach resonance. We show that when fermionic atoms form a condensate that can be externally tuned between the BCS and BEC limits, the zero temperature compressibility and the spin susceptibility of the fermionic gas are non-analytic functions of the two-body bound state energy. This non-analyticity is due to a massive rearrangement of the momentum distribution in the ground state of the system. Furthermore, we show that the low temperature superfluid density is also non-analytic and exhibits a dramatic change in behavior when the critical value of the bound state energy is crossed.

BCS-BEC Crossover in a Gas of Fermi Atoms with ap-Wave Feshbach Resonance

We investigate unconventional superfluidity in a gas of Fermi atoms with an anisotropic p-wave Feshbach resonance. Including the p-wave Feshbach resonance as well as the associated three kinds of quasimolecules with finite orbital angular momenta Lz=+/-1,0, we calculate the transition temperature of the superfluid phase. As one passes through the p-wave Feshbach resonance, we find the usual BCS-BEC crossover phenomenon. The p-wave BCS state continuously changes into the BEC of bound molecules with L=1. Our calculation includes the effect of fluctuations associated with Cooper pairs and molecules which are not Bose condensed.

Tuningp-Wave Interactions in an Ultracold Fermi Gas of Atoms

We have measured a p-wave Feshbach resonance in a single-component, ultracold Fermi gas of 40K atoms. We have used this resonance to enhance the normally suppressed p-wave collision cross section to values larger than the background s-wave cross section between 40K atoms in different spin states. In addition to the modification of two-body elastic processes, the resonance dramatically enhances three-body inelastic collisional loss.