We consider a Bose-Fermi mixture in the molecular limit of the attractive interaction between fermions and bosons. For a boson density smaller than or equal to the fermion density, we show analytically how a T-matrix approach for the constituent bosons and fermions recovers the expected physical limit of a Fermi-Fermi mixture of molecules and atoms. In this limit, we derive simple expressions for the self-energies, the momentum distribution function, and the chemical potentials. By extending these equations to a trapped system, we determine how to tailor the experimental parameters of a Bose-Fermi mixture in order to enhance the indirect Pauli exclusion effect on the boson momentum distribution function. For the homogeneous system, we present finally a diffusion Monte Carlo simulation which confirms the occurrence of such a peculiar effect.
We consider a Bose-Fermi mixture in the molecular limit of the attractive interaction between fermions and bosons. For a boson density smaller than or equal to the fermion density, we show analytically how a T-matrix approach for the constituent bosons and fermions recovers the expected physical limit of a Fermi-Fermi mixture of molecules and atoms. In this limit, we derive simple expressions for the self-energies, the momentum distribution function, and the chemical potentials. By extending these equations to a trapped system, we determine how to tailor the experimental parameters of a Bose-Fermi mixture in order to enhance the indirect Pauli exclusion effect on the boson momentum distribution function. For the homogeneous system, we present finally a diffusion Monte Carlo simulation which confirms the occurrence of such a peculiar effect.
We consider a Bose-Fermi mixture with a broad and tunable Feshbach resonance allowing to change continuously the attraction between bosons and fermions from weak to strong coupling. We set up a diagrammatic formalism which includes both the Bose-Fermi tunable attraction and the Bose-Bose repulsion at zero temperature. Remarkably, we find that for boson density smaller than or equal to the fermion density, the boson condensate fraction does not depend on the density imbalance across most of the resonance. In the limit of vanishing boson concentration, we find very good agreement with previous results for the polaron quasi-particle residue obtained in the context of strongly polarized Fermi-Fermi mixtures [1]. We calculate also the boson and fermion chemical potentials and momentum distribution functions and, when the condensate fraction vanishes, we recover the results of our previous works for the normal phase [2,3]. In addition, we calculate the effective masses and Fermi steps for the unpaired and composite fermions. We find that the Fermi step of the unpaired fermions remains pinned to the value given by the Fermi radius of a free Fermi gas across most of the resonance, in agreement with the Luttinger’s theorem [4], until molecules start to form (g≈1). The formation of molecules is signalled by the appearance of a second pole in the boson-fermion propagator, which marks the access to a regime where bosons, fermions and molecules cohexist, and by the presence of a Fermi step for the composite fermions, which is related to the density of molecules. Finally, we find quite a good agreement between our results for the condensate fraction and Quantum Monte Carlo calculations [5].
I will review recent work by us on the properties of Bose-Fermi mixtures with a tunable pairing interaction between bosons and fermions. A many-body diagrammatic approach, able to describe the condensed phase of a Bose-Fermi mixture from weak to strong boson-fermion couplings, will be presented [1]. This approach will be validated by comparing it with previous [2] and new dedicated fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo calculations. By using both methods, a universal behavior of the condensate fraction and bosonic momentum distribution with respect to the boson concentration is found in an extended range of boson-fermion couplings and concentrations. For vanishing boson density, the bosonic condensate fraction reduces to the quasiparticle weight Z of the Fermi polaron studied in the context of polarized Fermi gases, unifying in this way two apparently unrelated quantities. Finally, I will discuss an interesting effect occurring in the molecular limit of the boson- fermion coupling, where the condensation is completely suppressed [3]. This phenomenon is an indirect effect on bosons of the Pauli exclusion principle acting on fermions, and is the counterpart in BoseFermi mixtures of the so called “Sarma phase” discussed for polarized Fermi gases. [1] A. Guidini, G. Bertaina, D. Galli, and P. Pieri, arXiv:1412.2542. [2] G. Bertaina, E. Fratini, S. Giorgini, and P. Pieri, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 115303 (2013). [3] A. Guidini, G. Bertaina, E. Fratini, and P. Pieri, Phys. Rev. A 89, 023634 (2014).
The phase diagrams of low density Fermi-Fermi mixtures with equal or unequal masses and equal or unequal populations are described at zero and finite temperatures in the strong attraction limit. In this limit, the Fermi-Fermi mixture can be described by a weakly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture, where the bosons correspond to Feshbach molecules and the fermions correspond to excess atoms. First, we discuss the three and four fermion scattering processes, and use the exact boson-fermion and boson-boson scattering lengths to generate the phase diagrams in terms of the underlying fermion-fermion scattering length. In three dimensions, in addition to the normal and uniform superfluid phases, we find two stable nonuniform states corresponding to (i) phase separation between pure unpaired (excess) and pure paired fermions (molecular bosons); and (ii) phase separation between pure excess fermions and a mixture of excess fermions and molecular bosons. Lastly, we also discuss the effects of the trapping potential in the density profiles of condensed and noncondensed molecular bosons, and excess fermions at zero and finite temperatures, and discuss possible implications of our findings to experiments involving mixtures of ultracold fermions.
We consider a mixture of bosons and spin-polarized fermions in two dimensions at zero temperature with a tunable Bose-Fermi attraction. By adopting a diagrammatic T T -matrix approach, we analyze the behavior of several thermodynamic quantities for the two species as a function of the density ratio and coupling strength, including the chemical potentials, the momentum distribution functions, the boson condensate density, and the Tan’s contact parameter. By increasing the Bose-Fermi attraction, we find that the condensate is progressively depleted and Bose-Fermi pairs form, with a small fraction of condensed bosons surviving even for strong Bose-Fermi attraction. This small condensate proves sufficient to hybridize molecular and atomic states, producing quasi-particles with unusual Fermi liquid features. A nearly universal behavior of the condensate fraction, the bosonic momentum distribution, and Tan’s contact parameter with respect to the density ratio is also found.
We study a resonant Bose-Fermi mixture at zero temperature by using the fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo method. We explore the system from weak to strong boson-fermion interaction, for different concentrations of the bosons relative to the fermion component. We focus on the case where the boson density n(B) is smaller than the fermion density n(F), for which a first-order quantum phase transition is found from a state with condensed bosons immersed in a Fermi sea, to a Fermi-Fermi mixture of composite fermions and unpaired fermions. We obtain the equation of state and the phase diagram, and we find that the region of phase separation shrinks to zero for vanishing n(B).