Considering bosonic atoms immersed in a dilute Fermi gas, we theoretically investigate medium-induced bosonic clusters associated with fermion-mediated two- and three-body interactions. Using the variational approach combined with the fermion-mediated interactions, we numerically calculate the binding energies of two- and three-body bosonic clusters in a one-dimensional system. It is found that the bosonic clusters can be formed even with a repulsive boson-boson interaction due to the fermion-mediated interactions. Our results would be relevant for ultracold-atomic systems as well as analog quantum simulations of alpha clusters in neutron-rich matter.
Considering bosonic atoms immersed in a dilute Fermi gas, we theoretically investigate medium-induced bosonic clusters associated with fermion-mediated two- and three-body interactions. Using the variational approach combined with the fermion-mediated interactions, we numerically calculate the binding energies of two- and three-body bosonic clusters in a one-dimensional system. It is found that the bosonic clusters can be formed even with a repulsive boson-boson interaction due to the fermion-mediated interactions. Our results would be relevant for ultracold-atomic systems as well as analog quantum simulations of alpha clusters in neutron-rich matter.
We describe recent theoretical and experimental developments on mediated interactions in mixtures of bosonic and fermionic atoms. We discuss how particle-hole excitations of a Fermi sea can induce long-range interactions between heavy impurities or atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Conversely, phonon excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensate induce interactions between fermionic atoms. These mediated interactions exhibit different short-range and long-range scaling regimes with distance and, if strong enough, can induce fermion superfluidity. We discuss the prospects for observing new phenomena that could arise from mediated interactions. Experimentally, we outline recent studies of the 133Cs-6Li Bose-Fermi mixture, a platform well-suited for investigating fermion-mediated interactions. A Cs Bose-Einstein condensate immersed in a degenerate Li Fermi gas is prepared with tunable interspecies interactions. In the weak-coupling regime, precision measurements of condensate properties reveal fermion-mediated attractions between bosons, matching theoretical predictions. In the strong-coupling regime, we observe suppression and revival of sound modes and novel many-body resonances. Altogether, we aim to highlight both instances where experiment and theory agree well, and promising prospects to engineer long-range interactions in atomic quantum gases.
We reveal a quantum coherent state characterized by composite bosonic trions, wherein paired fermions further bind with bosons, in one-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixtures.This phase emerges in two separate models, both featuring onsite boson-fermion attraction that induces negative binding energy for the composite trions. The first is the pair-hopping model, in which spinless fermions undergo pair hopping to form preformed pairs. The second is the extended Bose-Fermi Hubbard model, describing dipolar bosons and fermions with density-density interactions. Notably, the formation of composite trions is independent of the specific pairing interactions of fermions. Extensive density matrix renormalization group calculations demonstrate the quasi-condensation of the composite trions, evidenced by algebraically decaying correlations of trions, gapped single-particle excitations, and suppressed fermion pair correlations. Our findings provide valuable insights into the three-body pairing mechanism in mixed-particle systems.
This work is inspired by recent experimental observations in ultracold atomic Bose-Fermi mixtures [DeSalvo et al., Nature 568 (2019)]. These experiments reveal the emergence of an attractive fermion-mediated interaction between bosons, as well as a stability-instability transition. We give the first mathematical demonstration of this transition by studying the low-energy spectrum of a many-body interspecies Hamiltonian. More precisely, we show the convergence of its eigenvalues towards those of an effective Bose Hamiltonian, which includes fermion-mediated effects. Applying this result to a model with short-range potentials, we derive a stability-instability transition in the bosonic subsystem, driven by the Bose-Fermi coupling strength g. For small ∣g∣, the bosons form a stable Bose-Einstein condensate with the energy per particle uniformly bounded from below. For large ∣g∣, the energy per particle is no longer uniformly bounded from below, signaling the collapse of the condensate.
Interactions in an ultracold boson-fermion mixture are often manifested by elastic collisions. In a mixture of a condensed Bose gas (BEC) and spin polarized degenerate Fermi gas (DFG), fermions can mediate spin-spin interactions between bosons, leading to an effective long-range magnetic interaction analogous to Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida [Phys. Rev. 96, 99 (1954); Prog. Theor. Phys. 16, 45 (1956); Phys. Rev. 106, 893 (1957)] interaction in solids. We used Ramsey spectroscopy of the hyperfine clock transition in a ^{87}Rb BEC to measure the interaction mediated by a ^{40}K DFG. By controlling the boson density we isolated the effect of mediated interactions from mean-field frequency shifts due to direct collision with fermions. We measured an increase of boson spin-spin interaction by a factor of η=1.45±0.05^{stat}±0.13^{syst} in the presence of the DFG, providing clear evidence of spin-spin fermion mediated interaction. Decoherence in our system was dominated by inhomogeneous boson density shift, which increased significantly in the presence of the DFG, again indicating mediated interactions. We also measured a frequency shift due to boson-fermion interactions in accordance with a scattering length difference of a_{bf_{2}}-a_{bf_{1}}=-5.36±0.44^{stat}±1.43^{syst}a_{0} between the clock-transition states, a first measurement beyond the low-energy elastic approximation [R. Côté, A. Dalgarno, H. Wang, and W. C. Stwalley, Phys. Rev. A 57, R4118 (1998); A. Dalgarno and M. Rudge, Proc. R. Soc. A 286, 519 (1965)] in this mixture. This interaction can be tuned with a future use of a boson-fermion Feshbach resonance. Fermion-mediated interactions can potentially give rise to interesting new magnetic phases and extend the Bose-Hubbard model when the atoms are placed in an optical lattice.
Recent theoretical and experimental progress on studying one-dimensional systems of bosonic, fermionic, and Bose-Fermi mixtures of a few ultracold atoms confined in traps is reviewed in the broad context of mesoscopic quantum physics. We pay special attention to limiting cases of very strong or very weak interactions and transitions between them. For bosonic mixtures, we describe the developments in systems of three and four atoms as well as different extensions to larger numbers of particles. We also briefly review progress in the case of spinor Bose gases of a few atoms. For fermionic mixtures, we discuss a special role of spin and present a detailed discussion of the two- and three-atom cases. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different computation methods applied to systems with intermediate interactions. In the case of very strong repulsion, close to the infinite limit, we discuss approaches based on effective spin chain descriptions. We also report on recent studies on higher-spin mixtures and inter-component attractive forces. For both statistics, we pay particular attention to impurity problems and mass imbalance cases. Finally, we describe the recent advances on trapped Bose-Fermi mixtures, which allow for a theoretical combination of previous concepts, well illustrating the importance of quantum statistics and inter-particle interactions. Lastly, we report on fundamental questions related to the subject which we believe will inspire further theoretical developments and experimental verification.
We study induced pairing between two identical fermions mediated by an attractively interacting quantum impurity in two-dimensional systems. Based on a stochastic variational method (SVM), we investigate the influence of confinement and finite interaction range effects on the mass ratio beyond which the ground state of the quantum three-body problem undergoes a transition from a composite bosonic trimer to an unbound dimer-fermion state. We find that confinement as well as a finite interaction range can greatly enhance trimer stability, bringing it within reach of experimental implementations such as found in ultracold atom systems. In the context of solid-state physics, our solution of the confined three-body problem shows that exciton-mediated interactions can become so dominant that they can even overcome detrimental Coulomb repulsion between electrons in atomically-thin semiconductors. Our paper thus paves the way towards a universal understanding of boson-induced pairing across various fermionic systems at finite density, and opens perspectives towards realizing unexplored forms of electron pairing beyond the conventional paradigm of Cooper pair formation.