Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2202.05431 · Physical Review A

Pseudopotentials for two-dimensional ultracold scattering in the presence of synthetic spin-orbit coupling

Christiaan R. Hougaard, Brendan C. Mulkerin, Xia-Ji Liu, Hui Hu, Jia Wang

Published Dec 27, 2019• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We derive a pseudopotential in two dimensions (2D) with a 2D Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC), following in the same spirit of the frame transformation by Guan and Blume [Q. Guan and D. Blume, Phys. Rev. A 95, 020702(R) (2017)]. The frame transformation correctly describes the nontrivial phase accumulation and partial-wave couplings due to the presence of SOC, which modifies the original Fermi pseudopotential in free space, even when the length scale of the SOC is significantly larger than the two-body potential range. As an application, we apply our pseudopotential within the Lippmann-Schwinger equation to obtain an analytical scattering matrix. To demonstrate the validity of our approach, we compare our results with a numerical scattering calculation of the finite-range potential that shows excellent agreement over a wide range of scattering energies and SOC strengths. Our pseudopotential is applicable in the cases of a strong energy-dependent $s$-wave scattering length and/or non-negligible $p$-wave interaction, where the original free-space pseudopotential fails. It sets an ideal starting point to explore many-body physics in the presence of synthetic SOC in cold atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.100.062713

Related papers

Mixed-partial-wave scattering with spin-orbit coupling and validity of pseudopotentials

Xiaoling Cui

We present exact solutions of a two-body problem for spin-$1/2$ fermions with isotropic spin-orbit (SO) coupling and interacting with an arbitrary short-range potential. We find that in each partial-wave scattering channel, the parametrization of a two-body wave function at short interparticle distance depends on the scattering amplitudes of all channels. This reveals the mixed-partial-wave scattering induced by SO couplings. By comparing with results from a square-well potential, we investigate the validity of original pseudopotential models in the presence of SO coupling. We find the $s$-wave pseudopotential provides a good approximation for low-energy solutions near $s$-wave resonances, given the length scale of SO coupling much longer than the potential range. However, near $p$-wave resonance the $p$-wave pseudopotential gives low-energy solutions that are qualitatively different from exact ones, based on which we conclude that the $p$-wave model can not be applied to the fermion system if the SO coupling strength is larger or comparable to the Fermi momentum.

arXiv:1112.1122•Physical Review A•Feb 14, 2012•58 citations

General formalism for ultracold scattering with isotropic spin-orbit coupling

Su-Ju Wang, Chris H. Greene

A general treatment of ultracold two-body scattering in the presence of isotropic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is presented. Owing to the mixing of different partial-wave channels, scattering with SOC is in general a coupled multichannel problem. A systematic method is introduced to analytically solve a class of coupled differential equations by recasting the coupled-channel problem as a simple eigenvalue problem. The exact Green's matrix in the presence of SOC is found, which readily gives the scattering solutions for any two identical particles in any total angular momentum subspace having negligible center-of-mass momentum. Application of this formalism to two spin-1 bosons shows the ubiquitous low-energy threshold behavior for systems with isotropic SOC. A modified threshold behavior shows up, which does not occur for the spin-orbit coupled spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ system. We also confirm the parity-breaking mechanism for the spontaneous emergence of handedness, which has been proposed by Duan et al. [H. Duan, L. You, and B. Gao, Phys. Rev. A 87, 052708 (2013)]. Additionally, a two-body bound state is found for any arbitrarily small and negative scattering length. Our study sheds light on the few-body side of SOC physics and provides one step towards understanding ultracold scattering in a non-Abelian gauge field.

arXiv:1412.4420•Physical Review A•Feb 17, 2015•18 citations

Analytical coupled-channel treatment of two-body scattering in the presence of three-dimensional isotropic spin-orbit coupling

Qingze Guan, D. Blume

It is shown that the single-particle spin-orbit coupling terms, which---in the cold atom context---are associated with synthetic gauge fields, can significantly and nontrivially modify the phase accumulation at small interparticle distances even if the length scale ${({k}_{\text{so}})}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ associated with the spin-orbit coupling term is significantly larger than the van der Waals length ${r}_{\text{vdW}}$ that characterizes the two-body interaction potential. A theoretical framework, which utilizes a generalized local frame transformation and accounts for the phase accumulation analytically, is developed. Comparison with numerical coupled-channel calculations demonstrates that the phase accumulation can, to a very good approximation, be described over a wide range of energies by the free-space scattering phase shifts---evaluated at a scattering energy that depends on ${k}_{\text{so}}$---and the spin-orbit coupling strength ${k}_{\text{so}}$.

arXiv:1701.03979•Physical Review A•Feb 21, 2017•11 citations

Interatomic collisions in two-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional confinements with spin-orbit coupling

Peng Zhang, Long Zhang, Wei Zhang

We investigate the low-energy scattering and bound states of two two-component fermionic atoms in pure two-dimensional (2D) and quasi-2D confinements with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We find that the SOC qualitatively changes the behavior of the 2D scattering amplitude in the low-energy limit. For quasi-2D systems we obtain the analytic expression for the effective 2D scattering amplitude and the algebraic equations for the two-atom bound-state energy. We further derive the effective 2D contact potential for the interaction between ultracold atoms in the quasi-2D confinement. This effective potential can be used in the research on many-body physics of quasi-2D ultracold Fermi gases with Rashba SOC.

arXiv:1203.0623•Physical Review A•Oct 16, 2012•33 citations

Two-body bound state of ultracold Fermi atoms with two-dimensional spin-orbit coupling

Shu Sheng Yang, Fan Wu, Wei Yi +1 more

In a recent experiment, a two-dimensional spin-orbit coupling (SOC) was realized for fermions in the continuum [Nat. Phys. 12, 540 (2016)], which represents an important step forward in the study of synthetic gauge fields using cold atoms. In the experiment it was shown that a Raman-induced two-dimensional SOC exists in the dressed-state basis close to a Dirac point of the single-particle spectrum. By contrast, the short-range interatomic interactions of the system are typically expressed in the hyperfine-spin basis. The interplay between synthetic SOC and interactions can potentially lead to interesting few- and many-body phenomena but has so far eluded theoretical attention. Here we study in detail properties of two-body bound states of such a system. We find that, due to the competition between SOC and interaction, the stability region of the two-body bound state is in general reduced. Particularly, the threshold of the lowest two-body bound state is shifted to a positive, SOC-dependent scattering length. Furthermore, the center-of-mass momentum of the lowest two-body bound state becomes nonzero, suggesting the emergence of Fulde-Ferrell pairing states in a many-body setting. Our results reveal the critical difference between the experimentally realized two-dimensional SOC and the more symmetric Rashba or Dresselhaus SOCs in an interacting system, paving the way for future characterizations of topological superfluid states in the experimentally relevant systems.

arXiv:1905.10735•Physical Review A•Oct 2, 2019•7 citations

Scattering and effective interactions of ultracold atoms with spin-orbit coupling

Long Zhang, Youjin Deng, Peng Zhang

We derive an analytical expression for the scattering amplitude of two ultracold atoms of arbitrary spin and with general spin-orbit (SO) coupling, on the basis of our recent work [Phys. Rev. A 86, 053608 (2012)]. As an application, we demonstrate that SO coupling can induce scattering resonance in the case with finite scattering length. The same approach can be applied to calculate the two-body bound state of SO-coupled ultracold atoms. For the ultracold spin-$1/2$ Fermi gases in three- or two- dimensional systems with SO coupling, we also obtain the renormalization relation of effective contact interaction with momentum cutoff, as well as the applicability of Huang-Yang pseudopotential.

arXiv:1211.6919•Physical Review A•May 31, 2013•30 citations
We derive a pseudopotential in two dimensions (2D) with a 2D Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC), following in the same spirit of the frame transformation by Guan and Blume [Q. Guan and D. Blume, Phys. Rev. A 95, 020702(R) (2017)]. The frame transformation correctly describes the nontrivial phase accumulation and partial-wave couplings due to the presence of SOC, which modifies the original Fermi pseudopotential in free space, even when the length scale of the SOC is significantly larger than the two-body potential range. As an application, we apply our pseudopotential within the Lippmann-Schwinger equation to obtain an analytical scattering matrix. To demonstrate the validity of our approach, we compare our results with a numerical scattering calculation of the finite-range potential that shows excellent agreement over a wide range of scattering energies and SOC strengths. Our pseudopotential is applicable in the cases of a strong energy-dependent sss-wave scattering length and/or non-negligible ppp-wave interaction, where the original free-space pseudopotential fails. It sets an ideal starting point to explore many-body physics in the presence of synthetic SOC in cold atoms.
We present exact solutions of a two-body problem for spin-1/21/21/2 fermions with isotropic spin-orbit (SO) coupling and interacting with an arbitrary short-range potential. We find that in each partial-wave scattering channel, the parametrization of a two-body wave function at short interparticle distance depends on the scattering amplitudes of all channels. This reveals the mixed-partial-wave scattering induced by SO couplings. By comparing with results from a square-well potential, we investigate the validity of original pseudopotential models in the presence of SO coupling. We find the sss-wave pseudopotential provides a good approximation for low-energy solutions near sss-wave resonances, given the length scale of SO coupling much longer than the potential range. However, near ppp-wave resonance the ppp-wave pseudopotential gives low-energy solutions that are qualitatively different from exact ones, based on which we conclude that the ppp-wave model can not be applied to the fermion system if the SO coupling strength is larger or comparable to the Fermi momentum.
A general treatment of ultracold two-body scattering in the presence of isotropic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is presented. Owing to the mixing of different partial-wave channels, scattering with SOC is in general a coupled multichannel problem. A systematic method is introduced to analytically solve a class of coupled differential equations by recasting the coupled-channel problem as a simple eigenvalue problem. The exact Green's matrix in the presence of SOC is found, which readily gives the scattering solutions for any two identical particles in any total angular momentum subspace having negligible center-of-mass momentum. Application of this formalism to two spin-1 bosons shows the ubiquitous low-energy threshold behavior for systems with isotropic SOC. A modified threshold behavior shows up, which does not occur for the spin-orbit coupled spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ system. We also confirm the parity-breaking mechanism for the spontaneous emergence of handedness, which has been proposed by Duan et al. [H. Duan, L. You, and B. Gao, Phys. Rev. A 87, 052708 (2013)]. Additionally, a two-body bound state is found for any arbitrarily small and negative scattering length. Our study sheds light on the few-body side of SOC physics and provides one step towards understanding ultracold scattering in a non-Abelian gauge field.
It is shown that the single-particle spin-orbit coupling terms, which---in the cold atom context---are associated with synthetic gauge fields, can significantly and nontrivially modify the phase accumulation at small interparticle distances even if the length scale ${({k}_{\text{so}})}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ associated with the spin-orbit coupling term is significantly larger than the van der Waals length rvdW{r}_{\text{vdW}}rvdW​ that characterizes the two-body interaction potential. A theoretical framework, which utilizes a generalized local frame transformation and accounts for the phase accumulation analytically, is developed. Comparison with numerical coupled-channel calculations demonstrates that the phase accumulation can, to a very good approximation, be described over a wide range of energies by the free-space scattering phase shifts---evaluated at a scattering energy that depends on kso{k}_{\text{so}}kso​---and the spin-orbit coupling strength kso{k}_{\text{so}}kso​.
We investigate the low-energy scattering and bound states of two two-component fermionic atoms in pure two-dimensional (2D) and quasi-2D confinements with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We find that the SOC qualitatively changes the behavior of the 2D scattering amplitude in the low-energy limit. For quasi-2D systems we obtain the analytic expression for the effective 2D scattering amplitude and the algebraic equations for the two-atom bound-state energy. We further derive the effective 2D contact potential for the interaction between ultracold atoms in the quasi-2D confinement. This effective potential can be used in the research on many-body physics of quasi-2D ultracold Fermi gases with Rashba SOC.
In a recent experiment, a two-dimensional spin-orbit coupling (SOC) was realized for fermions in the continuum [Nat. Phys. 12, 540 (2016)], which represents an important step forward in the study of synthetic gauge fields using cold atoms. In the experiment it was shown that a Raman-induced two-dimensional SOC exists in the dressed-state basis close to a Dirac point of the single-particle spectrum. By contrast, the short-range interatomic interactions of the system are typically expressed in the hyperfine-spin basis. The interplay between synthetic SOC and interactions can potentially lead to interesting few- and many-body phenomena but has so far eluded theoretical attention. Here we study in detail properties of two-body bound states of such a system. We find that, due to the competition between SOC and interaction, the stability region of the two-body bound state is in general reduced. Particularly, the threshold of the lowest two-body bound state is shifted to a positive, SOC-dependent scattering length. Furthermore, the center-of-mass momentum of the lowest two-body bound state becomes nonzero, suggesting the emergence of Fulde-Ferrell pairing states in a many-body setting. Our results reveal the critical difference between the experimentally realized two-dimensional SOC and the more symmetric Rashba or Dresselhaus SOCs in an interacting system, paving the way for future characterizations of topological superfluid states in the experimentally relevant systems.
We derive an analytical expression for the scattering amplitude of two ultracold atoms of arbitrary spin and with general spin-orbit (SO) coupling, on the basis of our recent work [Phys. Rev. A 86, 053608 (2012)]. As an application, we demonstrate that SO coupling can induce scattering resonance in the case with finite scattering length. The same approach can be applied to calculate the two-body bound state of SO-coupled ultracold atoms. For the ultracold spin-1/21/21/2 Fermi gases in three- or two- dimensional systems with SO coupling, we also obtain the renormalization relation of effective contact interaction with momentum cutoff, as well as the applicability of Huang-Yang pseudopotential.