We study a system of periodic Bose condensed atoms coupled to cavity photons using the input-output formalism. We show that the cavity will either act as a through pass Lorentzian filter when the superfluid fraction of the condensate is minimum or completely reflect the input field when the superfluid fraction is maximum. We show that by monitoring the ratio between the transmitted field and the reflected field, one can estimate the superfluid fraction.
We study theoretically the superfluidity and stability of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) whose interatomic scattering length is periodically modulated with optical Feshbach resonance. Our numerical study finds that the properties of this periodic BEC are strongly influenced by the modulation strength. When the modulation strength is small, only the Bloch waves close to the Brillouin zone edge suffer both Landau and dynamical instabilities. When the modulation strength is strong enough, all Bloch waves become dynamically unstable. In other words, the periodic BEC loses its superfluidity compl…
We discuss the suitability of holographically generated optical potentials for the investigation of superfluidity in ultracold atoms. By using a spatial light modulator and a feedback enabled algorithm we generate a smooth ring with variable bright regions that can be dynamically rotated to stir ultracold atoms and induce superflow. We also comment on its future integration into a cold atoms experiment.
The collective modes of a quantum liquid shape and impact its properties profoundly, including its emergent phenomena such as superfluidity. Here we present how a two-dimensional Bose gas responds to a moving lattice potential. In particular we discuss how the induced heating rate depends on the interaction strength and the temperature. This study is motivated by the recent measurements of Sobirey {\it et al.} arXiv:2005.07607 (2020), for which we provide a quantitative understanding. Going beyond the existing measurements, we demonstrate that this probing method allows to identify first and s…
We present a technique for engineering quantum magnets via ultracold polar molecules in optical lattices and explore exotic interplay between its spin superfluidity and solidity. The molecular ground and first excited rotational states are resonantly coupled by a linearly polarized microwave field. The spin-up (spin-down) states are presented by molecular rotational states of electric dipole moment along (against) the coupling field. By controlling the angle between the lattice direction and the coupling field, the inter-site interaction can be tuned from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic. Fu…
We propose a practical protocol to generate and observe a non-Abelian geometric phase using a periodically driven Raman process in the hyperfne ground state manifold of atoms in a dilute ultracold gas. Our analysis is based upon recent developments and application of Floquet theory to periodically driven quantum systems. The simulation results show the non-Abelian gauge transformation and the non-commuting property of the SU(2) transformation operators. Based on these results, we propose a possible experimental implementation with an ultracold dilute Bose gas.
Recent work on ultracold polar molecules, governed by a generalization of the t-J Hamiltonian, suggests that molecules may be better suited than atoms for studying d-wave superfluidity due to stronger interactions and larger tunability of the system. We compute the phase diagram for polar molecules in a checkerboard lattice consisting of weakly coupled square plaquettes. In the simplest experimentally realizable case where there is only tunneling and an XX-type spin-spin interaction, we identify the parameter regime where d-wave superfluidity occurs. We also find that the inclusion of a densit…
We study the superfluidity of a pure spin current that is a spin current without mass current. We examine two types of pure spin currents, planar and circular, in spin-1 Bose gas. For the planar current, it is usually unstable, but can be stabilized by the quadratic Zeeman effect. The circular current can be generated with spin-orbit coupling. When the spin-orbit coupling strength is weak, we find that the circular pure spin current is the ground state of the system and thus a super-flow. We discuss the experimental schemes to realize and detect a pure spin current.
We review some recent progresses on the study of ultracold Fermi gases with synthetic spin-orbit coupling. In particular, we focus on the pairing superfluidity in these systems at zero temperature. Recent studies have shown that different forms of spin-orbit coupling in various spatial dimensions can lead to a wealth of novel pairing superfluidity. A common theme of these variations is the emergence of new pairing mechanisms which are direct results of spin-orbit-coupling-modified single-particle dispersion spectra. As different configurations can give rise to single-particle dispersion spectr…
We present an $\textit{ab initio}$, numerically exact study of attractive fermions in square lattices with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The ground state of this system is a supersolid, with co-existing charge and superfluid order. The superfluid is composed of both singlet and triplet pairs induced by spin-orbit coupling. We perform large-scale calculations using auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo to provide the first full, quantitative description of the charge, spin, and pairing properties of the system. In addition to characterizing the exotic physics, our results will serve as essential hi…
We study the superfluid state of atomic Fermi gases using a BCS-BEC crossover theory. Our approach emphasizes non-condensed fermion pairs which strongly hybridize with their (Feshbach-induced) molecular boson counterparts. These pairs lead to pseudogap effects above $T_c$ and non-BCS characteristics below. We discuss how these effects influence the experimental signatures of superfluidity.
Properties of bosonic atoms in small systems with a periodic quasi one-dimensional circular toroidal lattice potential subjected to rotation are examined by performing exact diagonalization in a truncated many body space. The expansion of the many-body Hamiltonian is considered in terms of the first band Bloch functions, and no assumption regarding restriction to nearest-neighbor hopping (tight-binding approximation) is involved. A finite size version of the zero temperature phase diagrams of Fisher et al. \cite{Fisher} is obtained and the results, in remarkable quantitative correspondence wit…
We reveal that the p-wave superfluid can be realized in a mixture of fermionic and F=1 bosonic gases. We derive a general set of the gap equations for gaps in the s- and p-channels. It is found that the spin-spin bose-fermi interactions favor the p-wave pairing and naturally suppress the pairing in the s-channel. The gap equations for the polar phase of p-wave superfluid fermions are numerically solved. It is shown that a pure p-wave superfluid can be observed in a well-controlled environment of atomic physics.
Understanding how strongly correlated two-dimensional (2D) systems can give rise to unconventional superconductivity with high critical temperatures is one of the major unsolved problems in condensed matter physics. Ultracold 2D Fermi gases have emerged as clean and controllable model systems to study the interplay of strong correlations and reduced dimensionality, but direct evidence of superfluidity in these systems has been missing. Here, we demonstrate superfluidity in an ultracold 2D Fermi gas by moving a periodic potential through the system and observing no dissipation below a critical …
By selecting two dressed rotational states of ultracold polar molecules in an optical lattice, we obtain a highly tunable generalization of the t-J model, which we refer to as the t-J-V-W model. In addition to XXZ spin exchange, the model features density-density interactions and novel density-spin interactions; all interactions are dipolar. We show that full control of all interaction parameters in both magnitude and sign can be achieved independently of each other and of the tunneling. As a first step towards demonstrating the potential of the system, we apply the density matrix renormalizat…
We theoretically investigate the inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell (FF) superfluidity in a three dimensional atomic Fermi gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling near a broad Feshbach resonance. We show that within mean-field theory the FF superfluid state is always more favorable than the standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid state when an in-plane Zeeman field is applied. We present a qualitative finite-temperature phase diagram near resonance and argue that the predicted FF superfluid is observable with experimentally attainable temperatures (i.e., $T\sim0.2T_{F}$, where $T_{F}$ is the …
The system of ultracold atoms with hyperfine spin $F=3/2$ might be unstable against the formation of quintet pairs if the interaction is attractive in the quintet channel. We have investigated the behavior of correlation functions in a model including only s-wave interactions at quarter filling by large-scale density-matrix renormalization-group simulations. We show that the correlations of quintet pairs become quasi-long-ranged, when the system is partially polarized, leading to the emergence of various mixed superfluid phases in which BCS-like pairs carrying different magnetic moment coexist…
We investigate the spin-polarized chain of ultracold fermionic atoms with spin-3/2 described by the fermionic Hubbard model with SU(4) symmetric attractive interaction. The competition of bound pairs, trions, quartets and unbound atoms is studied analytically and by density matrix renormalization group simulations. We find several distinct states where bound particles coexist with the ferromagnetic state of unpaired fermions. In particular, an exotic inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-type superfluid of quartets in a magnetic background of uncorrelated atoms is found for wea…
Liquid helium 4 had been the only bosonic superfluid available in experiments for a long time. This situation was changed in 1995, when a new superfluid was born with the realization of the Bose-Einstein condensation in ultracold atomic gases. The liquid helium 4 is strongly interacting and has no spin; there is almost no way to change its parameters, such as interaction strength and density. The new superfluid, Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), offers various aspects of advantages over liquid helium. On the one hand, BEC is weakly interacting and has spin degrees of freedom. On the other hand, …
We present a pairing fluctuation theory which self-consistently incorporates finite momentum pair excitations in the context of BCS--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover, and we apply this theory to high $T_c$ superconductors and ultracold Fermi gases. There are strong similarities between Fermi gases in the unitary regime and high Tc superconductors. Here we address key issues of common interest, especially the pseudogap. In the Fermi gases we summarize recent experiments including various phase diagrams (with and without population imbalance), as well as evidence for a pseudogap in the…
We develop a strong-coupling ($t \ll U$) expansion technique for calculating the density profile for bosonic atoms trapped in an optical lattice with an overall harmonic trap at finite temperature and finite on site interaction in the presence of superfluid regions. Our results match well with quantum Monte Carlo simulations at finite temperature. We also show that the superfluid order parameter never vanishes in the trap due to proximity effect. Our calculations for the scaled density in the vacuum to superfluid transition agree well with the experimental data for appropriate temperatures. We…
Achieving a higher superfluid transition $T_c$ has been a goal for the fields of superconductivity and atomic Fermi gases. Here we propose that, by using mixed dimensionality, one may achieve ultra high temperature superfluids in two component atomic Fermi gases, where one component feels a regular three-dimensional (3D) continuum space, while the other is subject to a 1D optic lattice potential. Via tuning the lattice spacing and trap depth, one can effectively raise the Fermi level dramatically upon pairing so that superfluidity may occur at an ultra high temperature (in units of Fermi energ…
We theoretically study a possible new pairing mechanism for a two-dimensional population imbalanced Fermi gas with short-range repulsive interactions which can be realized on the upper branch of a Feshbach resonance. We use a well-controlled renormalization group approach, which allows an unbiased study of the instabilities of imbalanced Fermi liquid without assumption of a broken symmetry and gives a numerical calculation of the transition temperature from microscopic parameters. Our results show a leading superfluid instability in the p-wave channel for the majority species. The correspondin…
We consider two species of hard-core bosons with density dependent hopping in a one-dimensional optical lattice, for which we propose experimental realizations using time-periodic driving. The quantum phase diagram for half-integer filling is determined by combining different advanced numerical simulations with analytic calculations. We find that a reduction of the density-dependent hopping induces a Mott-insulator to superfluid transition. For negative hopping a previously unknown state is found, where one species induces a gauge phase of the other species, which leads to a superfluid phase o…
The out-of-equilibrium dynamics of interaction quenched finite ultracold bosonic ensembles in periodically driven one-dimensional optical lattices is investigated. It is shown that periodic driving enforces the bosons in the outer wells of the finite lattice to exhibit out-of-phase dipole-like modes, while in the central well the atomic cloud experiences a local breathing mode. The dynamical behavior is investigated with varying driving frequency, revealing a resonant-like behavior of the intra-well dynamics. An interaction quench in the periodically driven lattice gives rise to admixtures of …
The out-of-equilibrium dynamics of finite ultracold bosonic ensembles in periodically driven one-dimensional optical lattices is investigated. Our study reveals that the driving enforces the bosons in different wells to oscillate in-phase and to exhibit a dipole-like mode. A wide range from weak-to-strong driving frequencies is covered and a resonance-like behaviour of the intra-well dynamics is discussed. In the proximity of the resonance a rich intraband excitation spectrum is observed. The single particle excitation mechanisms are studied in the framework of Floquet theory elucidating the r…
We show that a time-dependent magnetic field inducing a periodically modulated scattering length may lead to interesting novel scenarios for cold gases in optical lattices, characterized by a nonlinear hopping depending on the number difference at neighboring sites. We discuss the rich physics introduced by this hopping, including pair superfluidity, exactly defect-free Mott-insulator states for finite hopping, and pure holon and doublon superfluids. We also address experimental detection, showing that the introduced nonlinear hopping may lead in harmonically trapped gases to abrupt drops in t…
We discuss the evolution from BCS to Bose superfluidity for ultracold fermions in two-dimensions and in the presence of simultaneous spin-orbit and Zeeman fields. We analyze several thermodynamic properties to characterize different superfluid phases including pressure, compressibility, induced polarization, and spin susceptibility. Furthermore, we compute the momentum distribution and construct topological invariants for each of the superfluid phases.
The superfluidity and pairing phenomena in ultracold atomic Fermi gases have been of great interest in recent years, with multiple tunable parameters. Here we study the BCS-BEC crossover behavior of balanced two-component Fermi gases in a one-dimensional optical lattice, which is distinct from the simple three-dimensional (3D) continuum and a fully 3D lattice often found in a condensed matter system. We use a pairing fluctuation theory which includes self-consistent feedback effects at finite temperatures, and find widespread pseudogap phenomena beyond the BCS regime. As a consequence of the l…
We study the transmission spectra of a Bose Einstein condensate confined in an optical lattice interacting with two modes of a cavity via nonlinear two-photon transition. In particular we show that a nonlinear two-photon interaction between the superfluid (SF) phase and the Mott insulating (MI) phase of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and the cavity field show qualitatively different transmission spectra compared to the one-photon interaction. We found that when the BEC is in the Mott state, the usual normal mode splitting present in the one-photon transition is missing in the two-photon inte…
We theoretically investigate two-particle and many-particle Anderson localizations of a spin-orbit coupled ultracold atomic Fermi gas trapped in a quasi-periodic potential and subjected to an out-of-plane Zeeman field. We solve exactly the two-particle problem in a finite length system by exact diagonalization and solve approximately the many-particle problem within the mean-field Bogoliubov-de Gennes approach. At a small Zeeman field, the localization properties of the system are similar to that of a Fermi gas with conventional $s$-wave interactions. As the disorder strength increases, the tw…
We theoretically investigate the pair-superfluid phase of two-component ultracold gases with negative inter-species interactions in an optical lattice. We establish the phase diagram for filling $n=1$ at zero and finite temperature, by applying Bosonic Dynamical Mean-Field Theory, and confirm the stability of pair-superfluidity for asymmetric hopping of the two species. While the pair superfluid is found to be robust in the presence of a harmonic trap, we observe that it is destroyed already by a small population imbalance of the two species.
We theoretically investigate the effects of pairing fluctuations in an ultracold Fermi gas near a Feshbach resonance with a negative effective range. By employing a many-body T-matrix theory with a coupled boson-fermion model, we show that the single-particle density of states exhibits the so-called pseudogap phenomenon which is a precursor of superfluidity induced by strong pairing fluctuations. We clarify the region where strong pairing fluctuations play a crucial role in single-particle properties, from the broad-resonance region to the narrow-resonance limit at the divergent two-body scatt…
Motivated by the recent rapid development of the field of quantum gases in optical lattices, we present a comprehensive study of the spectrum of ultracold atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice subjected to a periodic lattice modulation. Using the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group method, we study the dynamical response due to lattice modulations in different quantum phases of the system with varying density. For the Mott insulating state, we identify several excitation processes, which provide important information about the density profile of the gases. For the superflu…
In this paper, we study the effect of population imbalance and its interplay with pairing strength and lattice effect in atomic Fermi gases in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We compute various phase diagrams as the system undergoes BCS-BEC crossover, using the same pairing fluctuation theory as in Part I. We find widespread pseudogap phenomena beyond the BCS regime and intermediate temperature superfluid states for relatively low population imbalances. The Fermi surface topology plays an important role in the behavior of $T_\text{c}$. For large $d$ and/or small $t$, which yield an open Fer…
Orbital physics plays a significant role for a vast number of important phenomena in complex condensed matter systems such as high-T$_c$ superconductivity and unconventional magnetism. In contrast, phenomena in superfluids -- especially in ultracold quantum gases -- are commonly well described by the lowest orbital and a real order parameter. Here, we report on the observation of a novel multi-orbital superfluid phase with a {\it complex} order parameter in binary spin mixtures. In this unconventional superfluid, the local phase angle of the complex order parameter is continuously twisted betw…
We demonstrate that a site-dependent driving of a periodic potential allows for the controlled manipulation of a quantum particle on length scales of the lattice spacing. Specifically we observe for distinct driving frequencies a near depletion of certain sites which is explained by a resonant mixing of the involved Floquet-Bloch modes occurring at these frequencies. Our results could be exploited as a scheme for a site-selective loading of e.g. ultracold atoms into an optical lattices.
Collective excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensate of hard-core bosons and their mediated interactions: from two-body bound states to mediated superfluidity
The ground state and transport properties of the Lieb lattice flat band in the presence of an attractive Hubbard interaction are considered. It is shown that the superfluid weight can be large even for an isolated and strictly flat band. Moreover the superfluid weight is proportional to the interaction strength and to the quantum metric, a band structure invariant obtained from the flat-band Bloch functions. These predictions are amenable to verification with ultracold gases and may explain the anomalous behaviour of the superfluid weight of high-Tc superconductors.
Since the discovery of superfluidity in He4 and Landau's phenomenological theory, the relationship between Bose condensation and superfluidity has been intensely debated. He4 is known by now to be both superfluid and condensed at low temperature, and more generally, in dimension D\geq2, all superfluid bosonic models realized in experiments are condensed in their ground-state, the most recent example being provided by ultracold bosonic atoms trapped in an optical lattice. In this paper, it is shown that a 2D gas of bosons which is not condensed at T=0 can be achieved by populating a layer throu…
We investigate an ultracold and dilute Bose gas by taking into account a finite-range two-body interaction. The coupling constants of the resulting Lagrangian density are related to measurable scattering parameters by following the effective-field-theory approach. A perturbative scheme is then developed up to the Gaussian level, where both quantum and thermal fluctuations are crucially affected by finite-range corrections. In particular, the relation between spontaneous symmetry breaking and the onset of superfluidity is emphasized by recovering the renowned Landau's equation for the superflui…
We study the superfluid response, the energetic and structural properties of a one-dimensional ultracold Bose gas in an optical lattice of arbitrary strength. We use the Bose-Fermi mapping in the limit of infinitely large repulsive interaction and the diffusion Monte Carlo method in the case of finite interaction. For slightly incommensurate fillings we find a superfluid behavior which is discussed in terms of vacancies and interstitials. It is shown that both the excitation spectrum and static structure factor are different for the cases of microscopic and macroscopic fractions of defects. Th…
Recently a scheme has been proposed for generating the 2D Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling (SOC) for ultracold atomic bosons in a bilayer geometry [S.-W. Su et al, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{93}, 053630 (2016)]. Here we investigate the superfluidity properties of a degenerate Fermi gas affected by the SOC in such a bilayer system. We demonstrate that a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state appears in the regime of small to moderate atom-light coupling. In contrast to the ordinary SOC, the FFLO state emerges in the bilayer system without adding any external fields or spin polarization. As the …
We present a systematic investigation of the effects of "nonmagnetic" impurities on the $s$-wave BCS-BEC crossover in atomic Fermi gases within a pairing fluctuation theory. Both pairing and impurity scattering $T$-matrices are treated self-consistently at the same time. While the system is less sensitive to impurity scattering in the Born limit, for strong impurity scatterers, both the frequency and the gap function are highly renormalized, leading to significant suppression of the superfluid $T_c$, the order parameter and the superfluid density. We also find the formation of impurity bands a…
We develop a simple numerical method that allows us to calculate the Bardeen-Cooper-Schriefer (BCS) superfluid transition temperature (Tc) precisely for any interaction potential. We apply it to a polarised, ultracold Fermi gas with long-range, anisotropic, dipolar interactions and include the effects of anisotropic exchange interactions. We pay particular attention to the short-range behaviour of dipolar gasses and re-examine current renormalisation methods. In particular, we find that dimerisation of both atoms and molecules significantly hampers the formation of a superfluid. The end result…
We determine the quantum ground-state properties of ultracold bosonic atoms interacting with the mode of a high-finesse resonator. The atoms are confined by an external optical lattice, whose period is incommensurate with the cavity mode wave length, and are driven by a transverse laser, which is resonant with the cavity mode. While for pointlike atoms photon scattering into the cavity is suppressed, for sufficiently strong lasers quantum fluctuations can support the build-up of an intracavity field, which in turn amplifies quantum fluctuations. The dynamics is described by a Bose-Hubbard mode…
We study finite-temperature properties of a two-dimensional superfluid made of ultracold alkali-metal atoms in the BCS-BEC crossover. We investigate the region below the critical temperature $T_{BKT}$ of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition, where there is quasi-condensation, by analyzing the effects of phase and amplitude fluctuations of the order parameter. In particular, we calculate the superfluid fraction, the sound velocity and the quasi-condensate fraction as a function of the temperature and of the binding energy of fermionic pairs.
The one-dimensional Bose gas is an unusual superfluid. In contrast to higher spatial dimensions, the existence of non-classical rotational inertia is not directly linked to the dissipationless motion of infinitesimal impurities. Recently, experimental tests with ultracold atoms have begun and quantitative predictions for the drag force experienced by moving obstacles have become available. This topical review discusses the drag force obtained from linear response theory in relation to Landau's criterion of superfluidity. Based upon improved analytical and numerical understanding of the dynamic…
We study ultracold bosonic atoms with the synthetic three-dimensional spin-orbit (SO) coupling in a cubic optical lattice. In the superfluidity phase, the lowest energy band exhibits one, two or four pairs of degenerate single-particle ground states depending on the SO-coupling strengths, which can give rise to the condensate states with spin-stripes for the weak atomic interactions. In the deep Mott-insulator regime, the effective spin Hamiltonian of the system combines three-dimensional Heisenberg exchange interactions, anisotropy interactions and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. Based on…
We present two novel dressed inductive ring trap geometries, ideal for atom interferometry or studies of superfluidity and well-suited to utilisation in atom chip architectures. The design permits ring radii currently only accessible via near-diffraction-limited optical traps, whilst retaining the ultra-smooth magnetic potential afforded by inductive traps. One geometry offers simple parallel implementation of multiple rings, whereas the other geometry permits axial beam-splitting of the torus suitable for whole-ring atom interferometry.
Zero-point energy of a trapped ultracold Fermi gas at unitarity: squeezing the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and suppressing the Pauli principle to produce a superfluid state
Radio-frequency quantum engineering of spins is based on the dressing by a non resonant electromagnetic field. Radio-frequency dressing occurs also for the motion of particles, electrons or ultracold atoms, within a periodic spatial potential. The dressing, producing a renormalisation and also a freeze of the system energy, is described by different approaches, dressed atom, magnetic resonance semiclassical treatment, continued fraction solution of the Schrödinger equation. A comparison between those solutions points out that the semiclassical treatment, to be denoted as the $S$-solution, repr…
We study experimentally the dissipative dynamics of ultracold bosonic gases in a dynamic disorder potential with tunable correlation time. First, we measure the heating rate of thermal clouds exposed to the dynamic potential and present a model of the heating process, revealing the microscopic origin of dissipation from a thermal, trapped cloud of bosons. Second, for Bose-Einstein condensates, we measure the particle loss rate induced by the dynamic environment. Depending on the correlation time, the losses are either dominated by heating of residual thermal particles or the creation of excita…
We study the superfluid behavior of a population imbalanced ultracold atomic Fermi gases with a short range attractive interaction in a one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice, using a pairing fluctuation theory. We show that, besides widespread pseudogap phenomena and intermediate temperature superfluidity, the superfluid phase is readily destroyed except in a limited region of the parameter space. We find a new mechanism for pair hopping, assisted by the excessive majority fermions, in the presence of continuum-lattice mixing, which leads to an unusual constant BEC asymptote for $T_c$ that is i…
