The notion of "paired" fermions is central to important condensed matter phenomena such as superconductivity and superfluidity. While the concept is widely used and its physical meaning is clear there exists no systematic and mathematical theory of pairing which would allow to unambiguously characterize and systematically detect paired states. We propose a definition of pairing and develop methods for its detection and quantification applicable to current experimental setups. Pairing is shown to be a quantum correlation different from entanglement, giving further understanding in the structure of highly correlated quantum systems. In addition, we will show the resource character of paired states for precision metrology, proving that the BCS states allow phase measurements at the Heisenberg limit.
We investigate long-range pairing interactions between ultracold fermionic atoms confined in an optical lattice which are mediated by the coupling to a cavity. In the absence of other perturbations, we find three degenerate pairing symmetries for a two-dimensional square lattice. By tuning a weak local atomic interaction via a Feshbach resonance or by tuning a weak magnetic field, the superfluid system can be driven from a topologically trivial s-wave to topologically ordered, chiral superfluids containing Majorana edge states. Our work points out a novel path towards the creation of exotic su…
In this work we employ a simple pairing interaction model in order to study and classify an eventual pairing phase transition in finite fermionic systems. We show that systems with as few as 10-16 fermions can exhibit clear features reminiscent of a phase transition. To classify the nature of the transition we apply two different numerical methods, one based on standard thermodymanics, and another based on a recently proposed scheme by Borrmann et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3511 (2000)]. The transition is shown to be of second order, in agreement with results for infinite fermionic systems.
We consider trapped atomic Fermi gases with Feshbach-resonance enhanced interactions in pseudogap and superfluid temperatures. We calculate the spectrum of RF(or laser)-excitations for transitions that transfer atoms out of the superfluid state. The spectrum displays the pairing gap and also the contribution of unpaired atoms, i.e. in-gap excitations. The results support the conclusion that a superfluid, where pairing is a many-body effect, was observed in recent experiments on RF spectroscopy of the pairing gap.
We consider evolution of a Fermi gas in the presence of a time-dependent BCS interaction. The pairing amplitude in the emergent BCS state is found to be an oscillatory function of time with predictable characteristics. The interplay of linear instability of the unpaired state and nonlinear interactions selects periodic soliton trains of a specific form, described by the Jacobi elliptic function dn. While the parameters of the soliton train, such as the period, amplitude, and time lag, fluctuate among different realizations, the elliptic function form remains robust. The parameter variation is …
We propose to use the recently predicted two-dimensional `weak-pairing' $p_x + ip_y$ superfluid state of fermionic cold atoms as a platform for topological quantum computation. In the core of a vortex, this state supports a zero-energy Majorana mode, which moves to finite energy in the corresponding topologically trivial `strong-pairing' state. By braiding vortices in the `weak-pairing' state, unitary quantum gates can be applied to the Hilbert space of Majorana zero-modes. For read-out of the topological qubits, we propose realistic schemes suitable for atomic superfluids.
We determine the zero temperature quantum phase diagram of a p_x+ip_y pairing model based on the exactly solvable hyperbolic Richardson-Gaudin model. We present analytical and large-scale numerical results for this model. In the continuum limit, the exact solution exhibits a third-order quantum phase transition, separating a strong-pairing from a weak-pairing phase. The mean field solution allows to connect these results to other models with p_x+ip_y pairing order. We define an experimentally accessible characteristic length scale, associated with the size of the Cooper pairs, that diverges at…
Understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of extended quantum systems after the trigger of a sudden, global perturbation (quench) represents a daunting challenge, especially in the presence of interactions. The main difficulties stem from both the vanishing time scale of the quench event, which can thus create arbitrarily high energy modes, and its non-local nature, which curtails the utility of local excitation bases. We here show that nonperturbative methods based on integrability can prove sufficiently powerful to completely characterize quantum quenches: we illustrate this using a model o…
Duality relations are explicitly established relating the Hamiltonians and basis classification schemes associated with the number-conserving unitary and number-nonconserving quasispin algebras for the two-level system with pairing interactions. These relations are obtained in a unified formulation for both bosonic and fermionic systems, with arbitrary and, in general, unequal degeneracies for the two levels. Illustrative calculations are carried out comparing the bosonic and fermionic quantum phase transitions.
Strongly interacting fermionic atoms are shown to develop $η$-pairing superfluid correlations in a nonequilibrium steady state in the presence of spontaneous emission of light from atoms. On the basis of the Hubbard model subject to spontaneous decay between internal spin states, we show that prohibition of radiative decay due to the Pauli exclusion principle and destructive interference between doublon-decay processes lead to nonequilibrium $η$ pairing. Because of the non-thermal nature of the steady state, pair correlations arise even from a completely uncorrelated infinite-temperature initi…
Pairing of mobile charge carriers in doped antiferromagnets plays a key role in the emergence of unconventional superconductivity. In these strongly correlated materials, the pairing mechanism is often assumed to be mediated by magnetic correlations, in contrast to phonon-mediated interactions in conventional superconductors. A precise understanding of the underlying mechanism in real materials is, however, still lacking, and has been driving experimental and theoretical research for the past 40 years. Early theoretical studies established the emergence of binding among dopants in ladder syste…
We investigate numerically the problem of few (one, two) noninteracting spin$-1/2$ fermions in a shallow harmonic trap coupled via contact repulsive interactions to a uniform one-dimensional bath of lattice bosons, described by the Bose-Hubbard model. Through extensive density-matrix renormalization group calculations, we extract the binding energy and the effective mass of quasiparticles, including dressed impurities (polarons) and their two-body bound states (bipolarons), emerging from the effective non-local Casimir interaction between the impurities. We show that the mixture exhibits rathe…
A system of a few attractively interacting fermionic $^6$Li atoms in one-dimensional harmonic confinement is investigated. Non-trivial inter-particle correlations induced by interactions in a particle-imbalanced system are studied in the framework of the noise correlation. In this way, it is shown that evident signatures of strongly correlated fermionic pairs in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state are present in the system and they can be detected by measurements directly accessible within state-of-the-art techniques. The results convincingly show that the exotic pairing mechanism is a …
We investigate the physics of projected d-wave pairing states using their fermionic projected entangled pair state (fPEPS) representation. First, we approximate a d-wave Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer state using the Gaussian fPEPS. Next, we translate the resulting state into fPEPS tensors and implement the Gutzwiller projection which removes double occupancy by modifying the local tensor elements. The tensor network representation of the projected d-wave pairing state allows us to evaluate physical quantities in the thermodynamic limit without employing the Gutzwiller approximation. Despite having…
We investigate quantum entanglement between two (spin-1/2) fermions inside a cylindrical harmonic trap, making use of the von Neumann entropy for the reduced single particle density matrix as the pure state entanglement measure. We explore the dependence of pair entanglement on the geometry and strength of the trap and on the strength of the pairing interaction over the complete range of the effective BCS to BEC crossover. Our result elucidates an interesting connection between our model system of two fermions and that of two interacting bosons.
We study the ground-state properties of a two-component fermionic mixture effectively confined in a one-dimensional harmonic trap. We consider scenarios when numbers of particles in components are the same but particles have different masses. We examine whether it is possible to detect signatures of an unconventional pairing between opposite-spin fermions in the presence of attractive interactions. For this purpose, we perform the exact diagonalization of the many-body Hamiltonian and study the two-particle reduced density matrix. In agreement with expectations, we confirm that the many-body g…
For over twenty years, ultra-cold atomic systems have formed an almost perfect arena for simulating different quantum many-body phenomena and exposing their non-obvious and very often counterintuitive features. Thanks to extremely precise controllability of different parameters they are able to capture different quantum properties which were previously recognized only as theoretical curiosities. Here, we go over the current experimental progress in exploring the curious one-dimensional quantum world of fermions from the perspective of three subjectively selected trends being currently under vi…
We investigate the Bose-Hubbard chain in the presence of nearest-neighbor pairing. The pairing term gives rise to an unusual gapped $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Ising phase that has number fluctuation but no off-diagonal long range order. This phase has a strongly correlated many-body doubly degenerate ground state which is effectively a gap-protected macroscopic qubit. In the strongly interacting limit, the system can be mapped onto an anisotropic transverse spin chain, which in turn can be mapped to the better-known fermionic sister of the paired Bose-Hubbard chain: the Kitaev chain which hosts zero-energ…
We consider atomic Bose-Fermi mixtures in optical lattices and study the superfluidity of fermionic atoms due to s-wave pairing induced by boson-fermion interactions. We prove that the induced fermion-fermion coupling is always {\it attractive} if the boson-boson on site interaction is repulsive, and predict the existence of an enhanced BEC--BCS crossover as the strength of the lattice potential is varied. We show that for direct on-site fermion-fermion {\it repulsion}, the induced attraction can give rise to superfluidity via s-wave pairing, at striking variance with the case of pure systems …
We present theoretical prospects for creating p-wave paired BCS states of magnetic trapped fermionic atoms. Based on our earlier proposal of using dc electric fields to control both the strength and anisotropic characteristic of atom-atom interaction and our recently completed multi-channel atomic collision calculations we discover that p-wave pairing with $^{40}$K and $^{82,84,86}$Rb in the low field seeking maximum spin polarized state represent excellent choices for achieving superfluid BCS states; and may be realizable with current technology in laser cooling, magnetic trapping, and evapor…
We present an exactly-solvable $p$-wave pairing model for two bosonic species. The model is solvable in any spatial dimension and shares some commonalities with the $p + ip$ Richardson-Gaudin fermionic model, such as a third order quantum phase transition. However, contrary to the fermionic case, in the bosonic model the transition separates a gapless fragmented singlet pair condensate from a pair Bose superfluid, and the exact eigenstate at the quantum critical point is a pair condensate analogous to the fermionic Moore-Read state.
We study the behavior of the mutual information (MI) in various quadratic fermionic chains, with and without pairing terms and both with short- and long-range hoppings. The models considered include the short-range limit and long-range versions of the Kitaev model as well, and also cases in which the area law for the entanglement entropy is - logarithmically or non-logarithmically - violated. In all cases surveyed, when the area law is violated at most logarithmically, the MI is a monotonically increasing function of the conformal four-point ratio x. Where non-logarithmic violations of the are…
