Superfluid Order Research Articles

Odd-frequency superfluidity from a particle-number-conserving perspective

We investigate odd-in-time—or —pairing of fermions in equilibrium systems within the particle-number-conserving framework of Penrose, Onsager, and Yang, where superfluid order is defined by macroscopic eigenvalues of reduced density matrices. We show that odd-frequency pair correlations are synonymous with even fermion-exchange symmetry in a time-dependent correlation function that generalises the two-body reduced density matrix. Macroscopic even-under-fermion-exchange pairing is found to emerge from conventional Penrose-Onsager-Yang condensation in two-body or higher-order reduced density matrices through the symmetry-mixing properties of the Hamiltonian. We identify and characterize a matrix responsible for producing macroscopic even fermion-exchange correlations that coexist with a conventional Cooper-pair condensate, while a matrix is shown to be responsible for creating macroscopic even fermion-exchange correlations from hidden orders such as a multiparticle condensate. The transformer scenario is illustrated using the spin-balanced s-wave superfluid with Zeeman splitting as an example. The generator scenario is demonstrated by the composite-boson condensate arising for itinerant electrons coupled to magnetic excitations. Structural analysis of the transformer and generator matrices is shown to provide general conditions for odd-frequency pairing order to arise in a given system. Our formalism facilitates a fully general derivation of the Meissner effect for odd-frequency superconductors that holds also beyond the regime of validity for mean-field theory. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Coherent pair injection as a route towards the enhancement of supersolid order in many-body bosonic models

Over the past couple of decades, quantum simulators have been probing quantum many-body physics with unprecedented levels of control. So far, the main focus has been on the access to novel observables and dynamical conditions related to condensed-matter models. However, the potential of quantum simulators goes beyond the traditional scope of condensed-matter physics: Being based on driven-dissipative quantum optical platforms, quantum simulators allow for processes that typically are not considered in condensed-matter physics. These processes can enrich in unexplored ways the phase diagram of well-established models. Taking the extended Bose-Hubbard model as the guiding example, in this work we examine the impact of coherent pair injection, a process readily available in, for example, superconducting circuit arrays. The interest behind this process is that, in contrast to the standard injection of single excitations, it can be configured to preserve the U(1) symmetry underlying the model. We prove that this process favors both superfluid and density-wave order, as opposed to insulation or homogeneous states, thereby providing a route towards the access of lattice supersolidity. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Superfluid Mott-insulator quantum phase transition in an open cavity optomagnonic system

We investigated the superfluid Mott-insulator phase transition within an open coupled cavity optomagnonic array system. Based on the quasibosonic approach and employing perturbation approximation and mean-field theory, we obtain the time-dependent analytical superfluid order parameter. Our analysis revealed that dissipation induces decoherence within the system, while a strong magnon-cavity coupling enhances coherence significantly. Moreover, we explored the mechanisms by which increasing the magnon-cavity coupling strength drives the system towards the superfluid phase. The work holds significant guidance for the study of superfluidMott insulator phase transition under dissipative conditions, and providing a reliable reference for experimental implementation in open quantum systems.

A lattice pairing-field approach to ultracold Fermi gases

We develop a pairing-field formalism for ab initio studies of non-relativistic two-component fermions on a (d+1)-dimensional spacetime lattice. More specifically, we focus on theories where the interaction between the two components can be described by the exchange of a corresponding pairing field. The introduction of a pairing field may indeed be convenient for studies of, e.g., the finite-temperature phase structure and critical behavior of, e.g., ultracold atomic Fermi gases. Moreover, such a formalism allows to directly compute the momentum and frequency dependence of the pair propagator, from which the pair-correlation function can be extracted. For a first illustration of the application of our formalism, we compute the density equation of state and the superfluid order parameter for a gas of unpolarized fermions in (0+1) dimensions by employing the complex Langevin approach to surmount the sign problem.

Superfluidity in multicomponent fermions via the functional renormalization group

We reveal the critical properties of the phase transition towards superfluid order that has been proposed to occur in large spin fermionic systems. For this purpose, we consider the bosonic field theory for fluctuations of the complex skew-symmetric rank-2 tensor order parameter close to the transition. We then nonperturbatively determine the scale dependence of the couplings of the theory by means of the functional renormalization group. We established a fluctuation-induced first-order phase transition. In the weak-coupling regime, the jump in the order parameter is small and a new phase occurs almost continuously, while in the strong one the discontinuity of the transition is well detectable.

Realization of a supersolid phase in a two-channel model

We construct a two-channel model based on the one-dimensional extended Bose–Hubbard model, by including a second channel of free bosons. We use the mean-field theory to map the system to a reduced single-channel one and solve this system by means of the density matrix renormalization group method. We find the region where the superfluid and density-wave orders coexist which signals a supersolid state. Our theory can be realized experimentally with state-dependent optical lattices.

Reentrant phase transitions involving glassy and superfluid orders in the random hopping Bose–Hubbard model

We study a system of strongly correlated bosons with off-diagonal disorder, i.e., randomness in the kinetic energy, and find a family of reentrant phase transitions that occur as a function of the on-site interaction. We model the system using the paradigmatic Bose–Hubbard Hamiltonian with a random hopping term and solve it employing the replica trick and Trotter–Suzuki expansion known from quantum spin-glasses. From subsequent numerical calculations, we find three distinct phase boundaries at which the reentrant transitions occur: between glass and disordered phase, between superglass and superfluid ones, and between superfluid and disordered phases. All three happen at temperatures slightly above critical temperatures of corresponding non-interacting systems. When the emerging and disappearing order is glassy, this corresponds to the interplay of the thermal energy and the spread of hoppings. When superfluidity is involved, thermal fluctuations must slightly overcome the mean hopping in turn for the reentrance to occur.

Role of the effective range in the density-induced BEC-BCS crossover

We elucidate the role of the effective range in the Bose-Einstein-condensate (BEC) to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) crossover regime of two-component fermions in three dimensions. In contrast to ultracold Fermi gases near the broad Feshbach resonance, where the interaction can be characterized by the contact-type interaction, the interaction range in general becomes important in the density-induced BEC-BCS crossover discussed in the context of condensed-matter and nuclear systems. By characterizing the nonlocal interaction in terms of the low-energy constants such as scattering length $a$ and effective range $r$, we show how the crossover phenomena are affected by nonzero effective ranges. In particular, we show that the superfluid order parameter is strongly suppressed in the high-density regime and the sound velocity exhibits a nonmonotonic behavior reflecting the mechanical stability of the system. Moreover, we point out that the high-momentum tail associated with the contact parameter can be visible when the magnitude of momentum $k$ is much less than $1/r$. We also discuss the relation between the high-momentum tail and the nuclear contact formalism.

Core structure of static ferrodark solitons in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate

We develop an analytical description of static ferrodark solitons, the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological defects in the magnetic order, in the easy-plane phase of ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates. We find that the type-I ferrodark soliton has a single width while the type-II ferrodark soliton exhibits two characteristic length scales. The proposed ansatzes show excellent agreement with numerical results. Spin-singlet amplitudes, nematic tensor densities and nematic currents of ferrodark solitons are also discussed. The $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological defects in the mass superfluid order, dark-dark-dark vector solitons, are obtained exactly in the parameter regime where exact ferrodark solitons exist. The dark-dark-dark vector soliton has higher excitation energy than ferrodark solitons.

Geometric Induction in Chiral Superfluids.

We explore the properties of chiral superfluid thin films coating a curved surface. Because of the vector nature of the order parameter, a geometric gauge field emerges and leads to a number of observable effects such as anomalous vortex-geometric interaction and curvature-induced mass and spin supercurrents. We apply our theory to several well-known phases of chiral superfluid ^{3}He and derive experimentally observable signatures. We further discuss the cases of flexible geometries where a soft surface can adapt itself to compensate for the strain from the chiral superfluid. The proposed interplay between geometry and chiral superfluid order provides a fascinating avenue to control and manipulate quantum states with strain.

Superfluid transition temperature and fluctuation theory of spin-orbit- and Rabi-coupled fermions with tunable interactions

We obtain the superfluid transition temperature of equal Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit- and Rabi-coupled Fermi superfluids, from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) regimes in three dimensions for tunable $s$-wave interactions. In the presence of Rabi coupling, we find that spin-orbit coupling enhances (reduces) the critical temperature in the BEC (BCS) limit. For fixed interactions, we show that spin-orbit coupling can convert a first-order (discontinuous) phase transition into a second-order (continuous) phase transition, as a function of Rabi coupling. We derive the Ginzburg-Landau free energy to sixth power in the superfluid order parameter to describe both continuous and discontinuous phase transitions as a function of spin-orbit and Rabi couplings. Lastly, we develop a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau fluctuation theory for an arbitrary mixture of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings at any interaction strength.

Flowing bosonization in the nonperturbative functional renormalization-group approach

Bosonization allows one to describe the low-energy physics of one-dimensional quantum fluids within a bosonic effective field theory formulated in terms of two fields: the ``density’’ field \varphiφ and its conjugate partner, the phase \varthetaϑ of the superfluid order parameter. We discuss the implementation of the nonperturbative functional renormalization group in this formalism, considering a Luttinger liquid in a periodic potential as an example. We show that in order for \varthetaϑ and \varphiφ to remain conjugate variables at all energy scales, one must dynamically redefine the field \varthetaϑ along the renormalization-group flow. We derive explicit flow equations using a derivative expansion of the scale-dependent effective action to second order and show that they reproduce the flow equations of the sine-Gordon model (obtained by integrating out the field \varthetaϑ from the outset) derived within the same approximation. Only with the scale-dependent (flowing) reparametrization of the phase field \varthetaϑ do we obtain the standard phenomenology of the Luttinger liquid (when the periodic potential is sufficiently weak so as to avoid the Mott-insulating phase) characterized by two low-energy parameters, the velocity of the sound mode and the renormalized Luttinger parameter.

Chiral superfluid in a one-dimensional bipartite optical lattice

We study the formation of a chiral mode in a one-dimensional bipartite optical potential with a double-well dispersion. The geometry of the first excited state is tuned such that two degenerate energy minima are formed at the quasimomentum $q=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}\ensuremath{\hbar}{k}_{0}/2$ of the first Brillouin zone. Based on the coupled-mode theory, an unconventional superfluid order ${p}_{q}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}i{p}_{\ensuremath{-}q}$ is formed between the interacting condensate components within the double-well dispersion band under well-defined phase-locked steady states.

Finite temperature mean-field theory with intrinsic non-Hermitian structures for Bose gases in optical lattices

We reveal a divergent issue associated with the mean-field theory for Bose gases in optical lattices constructed by the widely used straightforward mean-field decoupling of the hopping term, where the corresponding mean-field Hamiltonian generally assumes no lower energy bound once the spatial dependence of the mean-field superfluid (SF) order parameter is taken into account. Via a systematic functional integral approach, we solve this issue by establishing a general finite temperature mean-field theory that can treat any possible spatial dependence of the order parameter without causing the divergent issue. Interestingly, we find the theory generally assumes an intrinsic non-Hermitian structure that originates from the indefiniteness of the hopping matrix of the system. Within this theory, we develop an efficient approach for investigating the physics of the system at finite temperature, where properties of the system can be calculated via straightforward investigation on the saddle points of an effective potential function for the order parameter. We illustrate our approach by investigating the finite temperature SF transition of Bose gases in optical lattices. Since the underlying finite temperature mean-field theory is quite general, this approach can be straightforwardly applied to investigate the finite temperature properties of related systems with phases possessing complex spatial structures.

Triangular Pair Density Wave in Confined Superfluid ^{3}He.

Recent advances in experiment and theory suggest that superfluid ^{3}He under planar confinement may form a pair density wave (PDW) whereby superfluid and crystalline orders coexist. While a natural candidate for this phase is a unidirectional stripe phase predicted by Vorontsov and Sauls in 2007, recent nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of the superfluid order parameter rather suggest a two-dimensional PDW with noncollinear wave vectors, of possibly square or hexagonal symmetry. In this Letter, we present a general mechanism by which a PDW with the symmetry of a triangular lattice can be stabilized, based on a superfluid generalization of Landau's theory of the liquid-solid transition. A soft-mode instability at a finite wave vector within the translationally invariant planar-distorted B phase triggers a transition from uniform superfluid to PDW that is first order due to a cubic term generally present in the PDW free-energy functional. This cubic term also lifts the degeneracy of possible PDW states in favor of those for which wave vectors add to zero in triangles, which in two dimensions uniquely selects the triangular lattice.

Superfluid density, Josephson relation and pairing fluctuations in a multi-component fermion superfluid

In this work, a Josephson relation is generalized to a multi-component fermion superfluid. Superfluid density is expressed through a two-particle Green function for pairing states. When the system has only one gapless collective excitation mode, the Josephson relation is simplified, which is given in terms of the superfluid order parameters and the trace of two-particle normal Green function. In addition, it is found that the matrix elements of two-particle Green function is directly related to the matrix elements of the pairing fluctuations of superfluid order parameters. Furthermore, in the presence of inversion symmetry, the superfluid density is given in terms of the pairing fluctuation matrix. The results of the superfluid density in Haldane model show that the generalized Josephson relation can be also applied to a multi-band fermion superfluid in lattice.

Critical Temperatures of Hard-Core Boson Model on Square Lattice within Bethe Approximation

The short-range correlations are considered for a two-dimensional hard-core boson model on square lattice within Bethe approximation for the clusters consisting of two and four sites. Explicit equations are derived for the critical temperatures of charge and superfluid ordering and their solutions are considered for various ratios of the charge-charge correlation parameter to the transfer integral. It is shown that taking into account short-range correlations for the temperatures of charge ordering results in the appearance of the critical concentration of bosons, which restricts the existence domain of the solutions of charge ordering type. In the case of superfluid ordering with the assumption of short-range correlations, the critical temperature is reduced up to zero values at half-filling. A phase diagram of the hard-core boson model is constructed with the assumption of phase separation within Maxwell's construction and it is shown that taking into account short-range correlations within Bethe approximation quantitatively approximates the form of phase diagram to the results of the quantum Monte Carlo method.

Entropy of pair condensed bosons at finite temperatures in optical lattices with bond-charge interaction

This work contains a quantum rotor analysis of the bond-charge interaction extended Bose–Hubbard model. Adding extended interactions to bosonic optical lattice models reveals new phases of matter to observe and study. Many-body correlations further widen the scope of possible discoveries. The U(1) quantum rotor method used in this work preserves three-body correlations, uncovering the presence of pair condensation in this model. Phase transitions between the normal state and both single and pair bosonic condensation are examined through the lens of the thermal behavior of the two superfluid order parameters and entropy, as well as the impact of bond-charge interaction on the properties of Bose–Einstein condensation in the presence of many-body correlations. At low temperatures and high densities, bond-charge interaction reinforces coherence, improving the critical temperature of Bose–Einstein condensation. It also exhibits a temperature-independent dissipative influence on the system.

Spatially Modulated Superfluid State in Two-Dimensional ^{4}He Films.

The second layer of ^{4}He films adsorbed on a graphite substrate is an excellent experimental platform to study the interplay between superfluid and structural orders. Here, we report a rigid two-frequency torsional oscillator study on the second layer as a function of temperature and ^{4}He atomic density. For the first time, we show experimentally that the superfluid density is independent of frequency, which can be interpreted as unequivocal evidence of genuine superfluidity. The phase diagram established in this work reveals that a superfluid phase coexists with hexatic density-wave correlation and a registered solid phase. This suggests the second layer as a candidate for hosting two exotic quantum ground states: the spatially modulated superfluid and supersolid phases resulting from the interplay between superfluid and structural orders.

Collective Excitations and Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in Dissipative Fermionic Superfluids.

We predict a new mechanism to induce collective excitations and a nonequilibrium phase transition of fermionic superfluids via a sudden switch on of two-body loss, for which we extend the BCS theory to fully incorporate a change in particle number. We find that a sudden switch on of dissipation induces an amplitude oscillation of the superfluid order parameter accompanied by a chirped phase rotation as a consequence of particle loss. We demonstrate that when dissipation is introduced to one of the two superfluids coupled via a Josephson junction, it gives rise to a nonequilibrium dynamical phase transition characterized by the vanishing dc Josephson current. The dissipation-induced collective modes and nonequilibrium phase transition can be realized with ultracold fermionic atoms subject to inelastic collisions.