Superfluid Order Parameter Research Articles

Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and vortex-antivortex lattice melting in two-dimensional Fermi gases with p - or d -wave pairing

We present a theoretical study of the finite-temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) and vortex-antivortex lattice (VAL) melting transitions in two-dimensional Fermi gases with $p$- or $d$-wave pairing. For both pairings, when the interaction is tuned from weak to strong attractions, we observe a quantum phase transition from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluidity to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of difermions. The KT and VAL transition temperatures increase during this BCS-BEC transition and approach constant values in the deep BEC region. The BCS-BEC transition is characterized by the non-analyticities of the chemical potential, the superfluid order parameter, and the sound velocities as functions of the interaction strength at both zero and finite temperatures; however, the temperature effect tends to weaken the non-analyticities comparing to the zero temperature case. The effect of mismatched Fermi surfaces on the $d$-wave pairing is also studied.

Transition from a 2D Degenerate Bose Liquid to 3D Superfluid in 4He Films Formed in Nanopores

The phase transition mechanism in a new dimensional condition was studied for the 4He film formed in 3D nanopore where pores of 2.7 nm diameter are connected in 3D with a period of 5.5 nm. In the case of a very low superfluid onset temperature TSF at a low coverage, a sharp and large peak of the specific heat indicates the typical 3D transition of the 4He film. This is understood by comparing the relative lengths among the 3D and 2D mean atomic distances and the 3D connection length of the film. When the coverage is increased, these length relations are changed to a new dimensional condition. We observed a sharp peak at TSF of the 3D transition up to 1.1 K. For a thick film, we also observed a hump at TB, which is higher than TSF. The hump is attributed to a phase change to a 2D degenerate state with a finite amplitude but without a long range order in the phase of superfluid order parameters. This indicates a new type of transition at TSF from the 2D degenerate state to the 3D superfluid, which is essent...

Ground-State Thermodynamic Quantities of Homogeneous Spin- 1/2 Fermions from the BCS Region to the Unitarity Limit

We experimentally determined various thermodynamic quantities of interacting two-component fermions at the zero-temperature limit from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) region to the unitarity limit. The obtained results are very accurate in the sense that the systematic error is within 4% around the unitarity limit. Using this advantage, we can compare our data with various many-body theories. We found that an extended ${\it T}$-matrix approximation, which is a strong-coupling theory involving fluctuations in the Cooper channel, well reproduces our experimental results. We also found that the superfluid order parameter ${\it \Delta}$ calculated by solving the ordinary BCS gap equation with the chemical potential of interacting fermions is close to the binding energy of the paired fermions directly observed in a spectroscopic experiment and that obtained using a quantum Monte Carlo method. Since understanding the strong-coupling properties of a superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region is a crucial issue in condensed matter physics and nuclear physics, the results of the present study are expected to be useful in the further development of these fields.

Topological Structures in a Model Cuprate

We address a minimal model to describe the charge degree of freedom in the CuO2 planes with the on-site Hilbert space reduced to only a charge triplet of the three effective valence centers, nominally Cu1+;2+;3+, and made use of the S = 1 pseudospin formalism. The 2D S = 1 pseudospin system is prone to a creation of different topological structures which form topologically protected inhomogeneous distributions of the eight local S = 1 pseudospin order parameters including charge density and superfluid order parameters. We focus on the so-called quadrupole skyrmion which is believed to be a candidate for a topological charge excitation in parent or underdoped cuprates. Puzzlingly, such an unconventional structure is characterized by a uniform distribution of the mean on-site charge that makes the quadrupole skyrmion texture to be invisible for X-rays. We suppose that the parent insulating antiferromagnetic cuprates may be unstable with regard to nucleation of topological defects in the unconventional form of the one- or multi-center skyrmion-like object with ring-shaped superfluid regions.

Quantum phase transitions of light in a dissipative Dicke-Bose-Hubbard model

The impact that the environment has on the quantum phase transition of light in the Dicke-Bose-Hubbard model is investigated. Based on the quasibosonic approach, mean-field theory, and perturbation theory, the formulation of the Hamiltonian, the eigenenergies, and the superfluid order parameter are obtained analytically. Compared with the ideal cases, the order parameter of the system evolves with time as the photons naturally decay in their environment. When the system starts with the superfluid state, the dissipation makes the photons more likely to localize, and a greater hopping energy of photons is required to restore the long-range phase coherence of the localized state of the system. Furthermore, the Mott lobes depend crucially on the numbers of atoms and photons (which disappear) of each site, and the system tends to be classical with the number of atoms increasing; however, the atomic number is far lower than that expected under ideal circumstances. As there is an inevitable interaction between the coupled-cavity array and its surrounding environment in the actual experiments, the system is intrinsically dissipative. The results obtained here provide a more realistic image for characterizing the dissipative nature of quantum phase transitions in lossy platforms, which will offer valuable insight into quantum simulation of a dissipative system and which are helpful in guiding experimentalists in open quantum systems.

Appropriate conditions to realize a p -wave superfluid state starting from a spin-orbit-coupled s -wave superfluid Fermi gas

We theoretically investigate a spin-orbit coupled $s$-wave superfluid Fermi gas, to examine the time evolution of the system, after an $s$-wave pairing interaction is replaced by a $p$-wave one at $t=0$. In our recent paper, we proposed that this manipulation may realize a $p$-wave superfluid Fermi gas, because the $p$-wave pair amplitude that is induced in the $s$-wave superfluid state by a parity-broken antisymmetric spin-orbit interaction gives a non-vanishing $p$-wave superfluid order parameter, immediately after the $p$-wave interaction is turned on. In this paper, using a time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory, we assess this idea under various conditions with respect to the $s$-wave and $p$-wave interaction strengths, as well as the spin-orbit coupling strength. From these, we clarify that the momentum distribution of Fermi atoms in the initial $s$-wave state ($t<0$) is a key to produce a large $p$-wave superfluid order parameter. Since the realization of a $p$-wave superfluid state is one of the most exciting and difficult challenges in cold Fermi gas physics, our results may provide a possible way to accomplish this.

Higgs Mode in a Trapped Superfluid Fermi Gas

In quantum many-body systems with spontaneous breaking of a continuous symmetry, Higgs modes emerge as collective amplitude oscillations of order parameters. Recently, Higgs modes have been observed in superconductors and in Bose gases in optical lattices. However, it has yet to be observed in Fermi gases. In the present paper, we use the time-dependent Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations to investigate Higgs amplitude oscillations of the superfluid order parameter in a trapped Fermi gas induced by a sudden changes of the \({ s}\)-wave scattering length. In particular, we investigate the Higgs mode with different values of the initial scattering length and discuss how the frequency and damping of the Higgs mode changes around the unitarity regime.

Probing the dynamic structure factor of a neutral Fermi superfluid along the BCS-BEC crossover using atomic impurity qubits

We study an impurity atom trapped by an anharmonic potential, immersed within a cold atomic Fermi gas with attractive interactions that realizes the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Considering the qubit comprising the lowest two vibrational energy eigenstates of the impurity, we demonstrate that its dynamics probes the equilibrium density fluctuations encoded in the dynamic structure factor of the superfluid. Observing the impurity's evolution is thus shown to facilitate nondestructive measurements of the superfluid order parameter and the contact between collective and single-particle excitation spectra. Our setup constitutes a novel model of an open quantum system interacting with a thermal reservoir, the latter supporting both bosonic and fermionic excitations that are also coupled to each other.

Triplet pair amplitude in a trapped s-wave superfluid Fermi gas with broken spin rotation symmetry. II. Three-dimensional continuum case

We extend our recent work [Y. Endo et. al., Phys. Rev. 92, 023610 (2015)] for a parity-mixing effect in a model two-dimensional lattice fermions to a realistic three-dimensional ultracold Fermi gas. Including effects of broken local spatial inversion symmetry by a trap potential within the framework of the real-space Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory at $T=0$, we point out that an odd-parity $p$-wave Cooper-pair amplitude is expected to have already been realized in previous experiments on an (even-parity) $s$-wave superfluid Fermi gas with spin imbalance. This indicates that, when one suddenly changes the $s$-wave pairing interaction to an appropriate $p$-wave one by using a Feshbach technique in this case, a non-vanishing $p$-wave superfluid order parameter is immediately obtained, which is given by the product of the $p$-wave interaction and the $p$-wave pair amplitude that has already been induced in the spin-imbalanced $s$-wave superfluid Fermi gas. Thus, by definition, the system is in the $p$-wave superfluid state, at least just after this manipulation. Since the achievement of a $p$-wave superfluid state is one of the most exciting challenges in cold Fermi gas physics, our results may provide an alternative approach to this unconventional pairing state. In addition, since the parity-mixing effect cannot be explained as far as one deals with a trap potential in the local density approximation (LDA), it is considered as a crucial example which requires us to go beyond LDA.

Disorder, three body interaction and Bose glass phase in a spinor atomic gas in an optical lattice

We study the effects of disorder on the spin dependent interaction term of a spinor Bose Hubbard model with a three body interaction potential. The signature of the Bose glass (BG) phase is observed by computing the fraction of the lattice sites having finite superfluid (SF) order parameter and non integer occupation densities. We obtain the phase diagram both for the antiferromagnetic (AF) and ferromagnetic (F) cases via a percolation analysis. In the AF case, the BG phase intervenes between the odd-even Mott insulating (MI) lobes (for example, the lobes corresponding to occupation densities, n=1 and (n=2) but not between the even-odd MI lobes. In the ferromagnetic case, the presence of the BG phase is observed between all the MI lobes irrespective of them being even or odd. The BG phase almost destroys the first MI lobe while the MI phase looks more stable than the SF phase both in the AF and F cases due to the presence of the three body interactions.

Ground-state phase diagram of the repulsive fermionict−t′Hubbard model on the square lattice from weak coupling

We obtain a complete and exact in the weak-coupling limit ($U \rightarrow 0$) ground state phase diagram of the repulsive fermionic Hubbard model on the square lattice for filling factors $0 < n < 2$ and next-nearest-neighbour hopping amplitudes $0 \le t^{\prime} \le 0.5$. Phases are distinguished by the symmetry and the number of nodes of the superfluid order parameter. The phase diagram is richer than may be expected and typically features states with a high --- higher than that of the fundamental mode of the corresponding irreducible representation --- number of nodes. The effective coupling strength in the Cooper channel $\lambda$, which determines the critical temperature $T_c$ of the superfluid transition, is calculated in the whole parameter space and regions with high values of $\lambda$ are identified. It is shown that besides the expected increase of $\lambda$ near the Van Hove singularity line, joining the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic points, another region with high values of $\lambda$ can be found at quarter filling and $t^{\prime}=0.5$ due to the presence of a line of nesting at $t^{\prime} \ge 0.5$. The results can serve as benchmarks for controlled non-perturbative methods and guide the ongoing search for high-$T_c$ superconductivity in the Hubbard model.

Role of trap-induced scales in non-equilibrium dynamics of strongly interacting trapped bosons

We use a time-dependent hopping expansion technique to study the non-equilibrium dynamics of strongly interacting bosons in an optical lattice in the presence of a harmonic trap characterized by a force constant K. We show that after a sudden quench of the hopping amplitude J across the superfluid (SF)-Mott insulator (MI) transition, the SF order parameter and the local density fluctuation exhibit sudden decoherence beyond a trap-induced time scale . We also show that after a slow linear ramp down of J, and the boson defect density display a novel non-monotonic spatial profile. Both these phenomena can be explained as consequences of trap-induced time and length scales affecting the dynamics and can be tested by concrete experiments.

Percolation analysis of a disordered spinor Bose gas

We study the effects of an on-site disorder potential in a gas of spinor (spin-1) ultracold atoms loaded in an optical lattice corresponding to both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin-dependent interactions. Starting with a disordered spinor Bose–Hubbard model (SBHM) on a two-dimensional square lattice, we observe the appearance of a Bose glass phase using the fraction of the lattice sites having finite superfluid order parameter and non integer local densities as an indicator. A precise distinction between three different types of phases namely, superfluid, Mott insulator and Bose glass is done via a percolation analysis thereby demonstrating that a reliable enumeration of phases is possible at particular values of the parameters of the SBHM. Finally, we present the phase diagram based on the above information for both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions.

The effect of disorder on polaritons in a coupled array of cavities

The effect of disorder in the intensity of the driving laser on a coupled array of cavities described by a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian for dark-state polaritons is investigated. A canonically-transformed Gutzwiller wave function is used to investigate the phase diagram and dynamics of a one-dimensional system with uniformly distributed disorder in the Rabi frequency. In the phase diagram, we find the emergence of a Bose glass phase that increases in extent as the strength of the disorder increases. We study the dynamics of the system when subject to a ramp in the Rabi frequency which, starting from the superfluid phase, is decreased linearly and then increased to its initial value. We investigate the dependence of the density of excitations, the relaxation of the superfluid order parameter and the excess energy pumped into the system on the inverse ramp rate, $\tau$. We find that, in the absence of disorder, the defect density oscillates with a constant envelope, while the relaxation of the order parameter and excess energy oscillate with $\tau^{-1.5}$ and $\tau^{-2}$ envelopes respectively. In the presence of disorder in the Rabi frequency, the defect density oscillates with a decaying envelope, the relaxation of the order parameter no longer decreases as $\tau$ increases while the residual energy decreases as $\tau$ increases. The rate at which the envelope of the defect density decays increases with increasing disorder strength, while the excess energy falls off more slowly with increasing disorder strength.

Identifying the mobility edges in a one-dimensional incommensurate model with p-wave superfluid

The mobility edges which separate the localized energy eigenstates from the extended ones exist normally only in three dimensional systems. For one-dimensional systems with random on-site potentials, one never encounters mobility edges, where all the eigenstates are localized. However, there are two kinds of 1D systems such as correlated disordered models, and the systems of exponentially decaying hopping kinetics, features of mobility edges at some specific values become possible. We study in this paper the properties of the mobility edges in a one-dimensional p-wave superfluid on an incommensurate lattice with exponentially decaying hopping kinetics. Without the p-wave superluid, the system displays a single mobility edge, which separates the extended regime from the localized one at a certain energy. Without the exponentially decaying hopping term, the system displays a phase transition from a topological superconductor to an Anderson localization at a certain disorder strength, where no mobility edge exists. We are interested in the influence of the p-wave superfluid on the mobility edge. By solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation, the eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions are obtained. In order to identify the extending or the localized properties of the eigenvectors, we define an inverse participation ratio IPR. For an extended state, IPRn～1/L which goes to zero at a large L, and for a localized one, IPRn being constant. Therefore, the IPR can be taken as a criterion to distinguish the extended state from the localized one, while the mobility edge is defined as the boundary between two different states. We find that, with a p-wave superfluid, the system changes from a single mobility edge to a multiple one, and the number of mobility edges increases with the increased superfluid pairing order parameter. To further obtain the energy or the location of the mobility edge, we investigate the scaling behavior of wave functions by using a multifractal analysis, which is calculated through the scaling index . The minimum value of the index, with the values min= 1, 0min1, and min= 0, mean the extended, critical, and localized states, respectively. For the two consecutive states, the minima of the scaling index min when extrapolating to the large size limit between 0 and 1 signal the mobility edge. By exploring the corresponding Bogoliubov quasi-particle wave functions for the system under open boundary conditions together with the multifractal analysis for the system under periodic boundary conditions, we identify two mobility edges for the system of the p-wave superfluid pairing. Furthermore, we will investigate how the existence of the mobility edges influences the p-wave superfluid, and identify the phase diagram at the given parameters. We will in the future try to understand the relationship between the topological superfluid and the mobility edges.

Quantum phase transition in arrays of dissipative cavities with two-photon process

In this paper, we employ a new kind of quasi-boson approach and the mean field theory to study analytically the Hamiltonian of an array of cavities with a three-level atom embedded in each cavity in the process of two-photon resonant transition under the influence of a bosonic bath. The superfluid order parameter of the system is obtained analytically and then analyzed numerically to investigate the effects of dissipation on the quantum phase transition from the superfluid to the Mott-insulator phase. It is shown that when the two-photon resonance is achieved one can have the superfluid phase at (ZJ/)= (ZJ/)c' 0.34 in the related ideal case. Furthermore, the system while in the two-photon resonant process has a larger dissipation rate as compared with that in the one-photon resonant process, thus leading to the suppression of the long-range coherence time and enhancement of the critical hopping rate for restoring coherence.

Pairing fluctuations and an anisotropic pseudogap phenomenon in an ultracold superfluid Fermi gas with pluralp-wave superfluid phases

We investigate superfluid properties of a one-component Fermi gas with a uniaxially anisotropic $p$-wave pairing interaction, $U_x>U_y=U_z$ (where $U_i$ ($i=x,y,z)$ is a $p_i$-wave pairing interaction). This type of interaction is considered to be realized in a $^{40}$K Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations within a strong-coupling $T$-matrix theory, we determine the $p_x$-wave superfluid phase transition temperature $T^{p_x}_{\rm c}$, as well as the other phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}^{p_x+ip_y}$ ($<T_{\rm c}^{p_x}$), below which the superfluid order parameter has the $p_x+ip_y$-wave symmetry. In the normal state near $T^{p_x}_{\rm c}$, $p_x$-wave pairing fluctuations are shown to induce an anisotropic pseudogap phenomenon, where a dip structure in the angle-resolved density of states around $\omega=0$ is the most remarkable in the $p_x$ direction. In the $p_x$-wave superfluid phase ($T_{\rm c}^{p_x+ip_y}<T\le T_{\rm c}^{p_x}$), while the pseudogap in the $p_x$ direction continuously changes to the superfluid gap, the pseudogap in the perpendicular direction to the $p_x$ axis is found to continue developing, because of enhanced $p_y$-wave and $p_z$-wave pairing fluctuations around the node of the $p_x$-wave superfluid order parameter. Since pairing fluctuations are always suppressed in the isotropic $s$-wave superfluid state, this phenomenon is peculiar to an unconventional Fermi superfluid with a nodal superfluid order parameter. Since the $p$-wave Fermi superfluid is the most promising non $s$-wave pairing state in an ultracold Fermi gas, our results would contribute to understanding how the anisotropic pairing fluctuations, as well as the existence of plural superfluid phases, affect many-body properties of this unconventional Fermi superfluid.

Superfluid phases of fermions with hybridizedsandporbitals

We explore the superfluid phases of a two-component Fermi mixture with hybridized orbitals in optical lattices. We show that there exists a general mapping of this system to the Lieb lattice. By using simple multiband models with hopping between $s$- and $p$-orbital states, we show that superfluid order parameters can have a $\ensuremath{\pi}$-phase difference between lattice sites, which is distinct from the case with hopping between $s$ orbitals. If the population imbalance between the two spin species is tuned, the superfluid phase may evolve through various phases due to the interplay between hopping, interactions, and imbalance. We show that the rich behavior is observable in experimentally realizable systems.

Proposed method to realize thep-wave superfluid state using ans-wave superfluid Fermi gas with a synthetic spin-orbit interaction

We theoretically propose an idea to reach the $p$-wave superfluid phase in an ultracold Fermi gas. The key of our idea is that the pairing symmetry of a Fermi superfluid is fully dominated by the symmetry of the superfluid order parameter, which is essentially given by the product of a pair amplitude and a pairing interaction. Noting this, in our proposal, we first prepare a $p$-wave pair amplitude by, not using a $p$-wave interaction, but using the phenomenon that a $p$-wave pair amplitude is induced in an $s$-wave superfluid Fermi gas with antisymmetric spin-orbit interaction. In this case, although the system is still in the $s$-wave superfluid state with the $s$-wave superfluid order parameter, when one suddenly replaces the $s$-wave interaction by an appropriate $p$-wave one (which is possible in cold Fermi gases by using a Feshbach resonance technique), the product of the $p$-wave interaction and the $p$-wave pair amplitude that has already been prepared in the spin-orbit coupled $s$-wave superfluid state immediately gives a finite $p$-wave superfluid order parameter. Thus, at least just after this manipulation, the system is in the $p$-wave superfluid state, being characterized by the artificially produced $p$-wave superfluid parameter. In this paper, to assess our idea, we evaluate the $p$-wave pair amplitude in a spin-orbit coupled $s$-wave superfluid Fermi gas at $T=0$. We determine the region where a large $p$-wave pair amplitude is obtained in the phase diagram with respect to the strengths of the $s$-wave pairing interaction and the spin-orbit coupling. We also discuss the accessibility of this optimal region on the viewpoint of the superfluid phase transition temperature. Since the achievement of a $p$-wave superfluid Fermi gas is one of the most crucial issues in cold atom physics, our proposal would be useful for this exciting challenge.

Expansion dynamics of Fermi atoms in optical lattice

We study the non-equilibrium quantum dynamics of attractive Fermi gases in one- and two-dimensional optical lattice. We use the dynamic Bogoliubov–de Gennes (DBdG) method and time-evolving block decimation (TEBD) to investigate the expansion dynamics, which can be implemented by suddenly removing the harmonic trap. The evolutions of density and superfluid order parameters have been calculated. We find that for the noninteracting case, the expansion rate is linear with hopping amplitude, which is a ballistic expansion result. And the interaction damps the expansion rate exponentially both in one and two dimensions and makes it deviate from the ballistic expansion.