Superfluid Bose-Fermi Mixture Research Articles

Emergent force and work fluctuations in a bilayer superfluid Bose–Fermi mixture in mixed dimensions

We investigate a system of two-atomic species in mixed dimensions, in which one species is spread in a three-dimensional space and the other species is confined in two parallel layers. The presence of atoms in three-dimensions creates an induced potential for the ones confined in layers. Depending on the scattering (coherence) length and the layer separation, the formation of p-wave pairing within the same layer or s-wave pairing between different layers has been suggested. It was shown that these pairs cannot coexist when time-reversal symmetry is on, and there appears a transition from p-wave to s-wave as the ratio of the layer separation and the effective scattering length decreases. Here, we study the thermodynamical signatures of such transition and find that with the formation of the inter-layer pairing, an emergent force to be present at the critical point and show that it can be derived from the ground state energy. This result offers a tool for experimentally realizing such transitions, and can find notable potential in the field of quantum-thermodynamics.

Collective oscillation modes of a superfluid Bose–Fermi mixture

In this work, we present a theoretical study for the collective oscillation modes, i.e. quadrupole, radial and axial mode, of a mixture of Bose and Fermi superfluids in the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a molecular Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) in harmonic trapping potentials with cylindrical symmetry of experimental interest. To this end, we start from the coupled superfluid hydrodynamic equations for the dynamics of Bose–Fermi superfluid mixtures and use the scaling theory that has been developed for a coupled system. The collective oscillation modes of Bose–Fermi superfluid mixtures are found to crucially depend on the overlap integrals of the spatial derivations of density profiles of the Bose and Fermi superfluids at equilibrium. We not only present the explicit expressions for the overlap density integrals, as well as the frequencies of the collective modes provided that the effective Bose–Fermi coupling is weak, but also test the valid regimes of the analytical approximations by numerical calculations in realistic experimental conditions. In the presence of a repulsive Bose–Fermi interaction, we find that the frequencies of the three collective modes of the Bose and Fermi superfluids are all upshifted, and the change speeds of the frequency shifts in the BCS–BEC crossover can characterize the different groundstate phases of the Bose–Fermi superfluid mixtures for different trap geometries.

Dipole modes of a superfluid Bose–Fermi mixture in the BCS-BEC crossover

Motivated by the first experimental realization by the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) group of a mixture of a Bose–Einstein condensate with a Fermi superfluid continuously changing from a Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) (Ferrier-Barbut et al 2014 Science 345 1035), we analytically study the dipole modes of the superfluid Bose–Fermi mixture in the BCS-BEC crossover. The analytical approach can explicitly reveal relationships between the frequencies of the dipole modes and the microscopic properties of the novel system. We start from coupled hydrodynamic equations, where the equation of state for the Fermi superfluid in the crossover is an analytical fitting formula based on experimental data, and by using a scaling approach we analytically study eigenfrequencies of the dipole modes for the coupled system in the ENS experimental parameters. Without the boson–fermion interaction in the equilibrium density profiles, our theoretical results can be reduced to the mean-field model and is consistent with the experimental data. However, by further taking into account the boson–fermion interaction numerically and analytically, we find that the results disagree with the experiment, especially in the parameter regime where the boson interaction is smaller than the boson–fermion interaction.

Dark–bright solitons in a superfluid Bose–Fermi mixture

The recent experimental realisation of Bose–Fermi superfluid mixtures of dilute ultracold atomic gases has opened new perspectives in the study of quantum many-body systems. Depending on the values of the scattering lengths and the amount of bosons and fermions, a uniform Bose–Fermi mixture is predicted to exhibit a fully mixed phase, a fully separated phase or, in addition, a purely fermionic phase coexisting with a mixed phase. The occurrence of this intermediate configuration has interesting consequences when the system is nonuniform. In this work we theoretically investigate the case of solitonic solutions of coupled Bogoliubov–de Gennes and Gross–Pitaevskii equations for the fermionic and bosonic components, respectively. We show that, in the partially separated phase, a dark soliton in Fermi superfluid is accompanied by a broad bosonic component in the soliton, forming a dark–bright soliton which keeps full spatial coherence.

Induced interactions in a superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture

We analyse a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) mixed with a superfluid two-component Fermi gas in the whole BCS-BEC cross-over. Using a quasiparticle random phase approximation combined with Beliaev theory to describe the Fermi superfluid and the BEC respectively, we show that the single particle and collective excitations of the Fermi gas give rise to an induced interaction between the bosons, which varies strongly with momentum and frequency. It diverges at the sound mode of the Fermi superfluid, resulting in a sharp avoided crossing feature and a corresponding sign change of the interaction energy shift in the excitation spectrum of the BEC. In addition, the excitation of quasiparticles in the Fermi superfluid leads to damping of the excitations in the BEC. Besides studying induced interactions themselves, these prominent effects can be used to systematically probe the strongly interacting Fermi gas.

Structure and dynamics of a rotating superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture

We investigate the structure and dynamics of a rotating superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture (SBFM) made of superfluid bosons and two-component (spin up and down) superfluid fermions. A ground-state phase diagram for the nonrotating case of a SBFM with specific parameters is given, where the ground-state configuration of a nonrotating SBFM is mainly determined by the boson-fermion interaction. For the rotating case of a SBFM with a sufficiently large rotation frequency, we show that the system supports a mixed phase and three typical layer separated phases. In particular, the visible vortex formation in the fermionic superfluid exhibits a remarkable hysteresis effect during the dynamical evolution of a rotating SBFM, which is evidently different from the case of rotating two-component Bose-Einstein condensates.

Coupled Korteweg de Vries solitary wave of superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture

In this paper, the solitary waves in superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture are investigated under the limited case of a BEC regime, a BCS regime and unitarity. By using the transverse perturbation method, a coupled Korteweg de Vries (KdV) equation for the nonlinear solitary waves is derived. It is found that the scattering length between bosons and fermions has strong effect on the characters of the coupled solitary wave.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking of a Bose—Fermi mixture in a two-dimensional double-well potential

We study the spontaneous symmetry breaking of a superfluid Bose—Fermi mixture in a two-dimensional double-well potential. The mixture is described by a set of coupled Gross—Pitaevskii equations. The symmetry breaking phenomenon is demonstrated in the two-dimensional double-well potential in the mixture. The results are summarized in the phase diagrams of the mixture particle numbers, which are divided into symmetric and asymmetric regions by the asymmetry ratios. The dynamical pictures of the spontaneous symmetry breaking induced by a gradual transformation of the single-well potential into a double-well one are also illustrated. The properties of the quantum degenerate mixture are explored using the realistic parameters for a 40K−87Rb system.

Localization of a Bose-Fermi mixture in a bichromatic optical lattice

We study the localization of a cigar-shaped super-fluid Bose-Fermi mixture in a quasi-periodic bichromatic optical lattice (OL) for inter-species attraction and intra-species repulsion. The mixture is described by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the bosons, coupled to a hydrodynamic mean-field equation for fermions at unitarity. We confirm the existence of the symbiotic localized states in the Bose-Fermi mixture and Anderson localization of the Bose component in the interacting Bose-Fermi mixture on a bichromatic OL. The phase diagram in boson and fermion numbers showing the regions of the symbiotic and Anderson localization of the Bose component is presented. Finally, the stability of symbiotic and Anderson localized states is established under small perturbations.

Superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture from weak coupling to unitarity

We investigate the zero-temperature properties of a superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture by introducing a set of coupled Galilei-invariant nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations valid from weak coupling to unitarity. The Bose dynamics is described by a Gross-Pitaevskii-type equation including beyond-mean-field corrections possessing the correct weak-coupling and unitarity limits. The dynamics of the two-component Fermi superfluid is described by a density-functional equation including beyond-mean-field terms with correct weak-coupling and unitarity limits. The present set of equations is equivalent to the equations of generalized superfluid hydrodynamics, which take into account also surface effects. The equations describe the mixture properly as the Bose-Bose repulsive (positive) and Fermi-Fermi attractive (negative) scattering lengths are varied from zero to infinity in the presence of a Bose-Fermi interaction. The present model is tested numerically as the Bose-Bose and Fermi-Fermi scattering lengths are varied over wide ranges covering the weak-coupling to unitarity transition.

One-dimensional superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture: Mixing, demixing, and bright solitons

We study an ultracold and dilute superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture confined in a strictly one-dimensional (1D) atomic waveguide by using a set of coupled nonlinear mean-field equations obtained from the Lieb-Liniger energy density for bosons and the Gaudin-Yang energy density for fermions. We consider a finite Bose-Fermi interatomic strength g{sub bf} and both periodic and open boundary conditions. We find that with periodic boundary conditions--i.e., in a quasi-1D ring - a uniform Bose-Fermi mixture is stable only with a large fermionic density. We predict that at small fermionic densities the ground state of the system displays demixing if g{sub bf}>0 and may become a localized Bose-Fermi bright soliton for g{sub bf}<0. Finally, we show, using variational and numerical solutions of the mean-field equations, that with open boundary conditions--i.e., in a quasi-1D cylinder--the Bose-Fermi bright soliton is the unique ground state of the system with a finite number of particles, which could exhibit a partial mixing-demixing transition. In this case the bright solitons are demonstrated to be dynamically stable. The experimental realization of these Bose-Fermi bright solitons seems possible with present setups.