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arXiv:1210.0687 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Realizing one-dimensional topological superfluids with ultracold atomic gases

Sylvain Nascimbène

Published Jun 24, 2013• 55 citations
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Abstract

We propose an experimental implementation of a topological superfluid with ultracold fermionic atoms. An optical superlattice is used to juxtapose a 1D gas of fermionic atoms and a 2D conventional superfluid of condensed Feshbach molecules. The latter acts as a Cooper pair reservoir and effectively induces a superfluid gap in the 1D system. Combined with a spin-dependent optical lattice along the 1D tube and laser-induced atom tunneling, we obtain a topological superfluid phase. In the regime of weak couplings to the molecular fl eld and for a uniform gas the atomic system is equivalent to Kitaev's model of a p-wave superfluid. Using a numerical calculation we show that the topological superfluidity is robust beyond the perturbative limit and in the presence of a harmonic trap. Finally we describe how to investigate some physical properties of the Majorana fermions located at the topological superfluid boundaries. In particular we discuss how to prepare and detect a given Majorana edge state.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/46/13/134005

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