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arXiv:2502.05006 · Physical Review Research

Dipole-mode spectrum and hydrodynamic crossover in a resonantly interacting two-species fermion mixture

Zhu-Xiong Ye, Alberto Canali, Chun-Kit Wong, Marian Kreyer, Emil Kirilov, Rudolf Grimm

Published Jun 13, 2025• 2 citations
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Abstract

Ultracold quantum-gas mixtures of fermionic atoms with resonant control of interactions offer a unique test-bed to explore few- and many-body quantum states with unconventional properties. The emergence of such strongly correlated systems, for instance, symmetry-broken superfluids, is usually accompanied by hydrodynamic collective behavior. Thus experimental progress in this field naturally requires a deep understanding of hydrodynamic regimes. Here, we report on experiments employing a tunable Fermi-Fermi mixture of Dy 161 and K 40 near quantum degeneracy. We investigate the full spectrum of dipole modes across a Feshbach resonance and characterize the crossover from collisionless to deep hydrodynamic behavior in measurements of frequencies and damping rates. We compare our results with a theoretical model that considers the motion of the mass centers of the two species, and we identify the contributions of friction and mean-field interaction. We show that one oscillating mode exists over the whole range of interactions, exhibiting striking changes of frequency and damping in the deep hydrodynamic regime. We observe the second oscillating mode to split into two purely exponential damping modes. One of these exponential modes shows very fast damping, faster than any other relevant timescale, and is largely insensitive to experimental imperfections. It provides an accurate measure for the interspecies drag effect, which generalizes the concept of spin drag explored in other experiments. We finally characterize the interspecies drag in terms of a microscopic friction coefficient, and we discuss its unitarity-limited universal behavior on top of the resonance.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.7.023259

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Ultracold quantum-gas mixtures of fermionic atoms with resonant control of interactions offer a unique test-bed to explore few- and many-body quantum states with unconventional properties. The emergence of such strongly correlated systems, for instance, symmetry-broken superfluids, is usually accompanied by hydrodynamic collective behavior. Thus experimental progress in this field naturally requires a deep understanding of hydrodynamic regimes. Here, we report on experiments employing a tunable Fermi-Fermi mixture of Dy 161 and K 40 near quantum degeneracy. We investigate the full spectrum of dipole modes across a Feshbach resonance and characterize the crossover from collisionless to deep hydrodynamic behavior in measurements of frequencies and damping rates. We compare our results with a theoretical model that considers the motion of the mass centers of the two species, and we identify the contributions of friction and mean-field interaction. We show that one oscillating mode exists over the whole range of interactions, exhibiting striking changes of frequency and damping in the deep hydrodynamic regime. We observe the second oscillating mode to split into two purely exponential damping modes. One of these exponential modes shows very fast damping, faster than any other relevant timescale, and is largely insensitive to experimental imperfections. It provides an accurate measure for the interspecies drag effect, which generalizes the concept of spin drag explored in other experiments. We finally characterize the interspecies drag in terms of a microscopic friction coefficient, and we discuss its unitarity-limited universal behavior on top of the resonance.
This thesis theoretically deals with collective modes in the normal phase of a Bose-Fermi mixture composed of single-species bosons and single-species fermions.The mixture is experimentally established as an ultracold atomic gas.While the community studies the mixture including a superfluid phase, relevant to Bose-Einstein condensation of bosons and Cooper paring of fermions, dynamical behaviors in the normal phase have been not fully understood so that we are interested in.We consider the mixture in both spatially uniform and harmonically trapped systems with the Boltzmann equation at finite temperatures.We perform the analysis under the assumption that the physical quantities are near to equilibrium.After the linerization, we apply the moment method to the equation, obtaining a closed set of coupled equations to describe sound or oscillation.The collisional property of the system characterizes the collective modes in the sense of the hydrodynamic regime, collisionless regime, and transition between these regimes.In the uniform system, we investigate sound mode and the dynamic density structure factor.With decreasing temperature, we find that the sound velocity deviates from that of the hydrodynamic mode.Even at a temperature much lower than the Fermi temperature, the sound velocity does not reach the collisionless limit analogous to the zero sound in a Fermi system.However, we show the existence of a long-lived sound at a low temperature as distinct from the first and zero sounds.Nature of the long-lived sound seems to be originated by Pauli blocking of fermions; this statistical effect makes the interspecies collision suppress in the Bose-Fermi mixture.In the trapped system, we mainly study dipole oscillation.We consistently define the relaxation time originated by the interspecies scattering.We find that two oscillating modes in the collisionless regime have distinct fates in the hydrodynamic regime; one collisionless mode shows a crossover to a hydrodynamic in-phase mode, and the other collisionless mode shows a transition to two purely-damped modes.We show the time evolution of the three types of hydrodynamic modes with suitable initial conditions.We discuss temperature dependence of the dipole modes.We observe that the relaxation time dominates the dependence compared to the mean-field contribution.We also observe the nonmonotonic behavior of the relaxation time when Pauli blocking of fermions is not negligible.i List of Figures 1.1 Two schematic images of collisions with a period of oscillation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Measurement of the zero sound in pure liquid 3 He . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3 Transition between the first sound and the zero sound in a two-component Fermi gas . . . 3 1.4 Dipole oscillations of the two-component gas of 40 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.5 Frequencies of dipole mode in the two-component gas of 40 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.6 Damping times of dipole mode in the two-component gas of 40 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.7 Dipole oscillations of the mixture of 87 Rb and 40 K in the hydrodynamic regime . . . . . . .6 1.8 Dipole oscillations of the mixture of 87 Rb and 40 K in the deeper hydrodynamic regime . . .6 1.9 Dipole oscillations of the mixture of 87 Rb and 40 K in the collisionless regime . . . . . . . .7 2.1 Results obtained by solving the coupled moment equations for sound mode . . . . . . . . .26 3.1 Time evolution of the center-of-mass positions and velocity fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 3.2 Dipole modes as a function of the relaxation time with N B = N F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 3.3 Dipole modes as a function of the relaxation time with N B /N F = 0.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 3.4 Ratio of the displacement of the center of mass to the velocity field as a function of the relaxation time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dipole oscillation is studied in a normal phase of a trapped Bose-Fermi-mixture gas composed of single-species bosons and single-species fermions. Applying the moment method to the linearized Boltzmann equation, we derive a closed set of equations of motion for the center-of-mass position and momentum of both components. By solving the coupled equations, we reveal the behavior of dipole modes in the transition between the collisionless regime and the hydrodynamic regime. We find that two oscillating modes in the collisionless regime have distinct fates in the hydrodynamic regime: one collisionless mode shows a crossover to a hydrodynamic in-phase mode, and the other collisionless mode shows a transition to two purely damped modes. The temperature dependence of these dipole modes are also discussed.
We observe collective oscillations of a trapped, degenerate Fermi gas of 6Li atoms at a magnetic field just above a Feshbach resonance, where the two-body physics does not support a bound state. The gas exhibits a radial breathing mode at a frequency of 2837(05) Hz, in excellent agreement with the frequency of nu(H) identical with sqrt[10nu(x)nu(y)/3]=2830(20) Hz predicted for a hydrodynamic Fermi gas with unitarity-limited interactions. The measured damping times and frequencies are inconsistent with predictions for both the collisionless mean field regime and for collisional hydrodynamics. These observations provide the first evidence for superfluid hydrodynamics in a resonantly interacting Fermi gas.
We report on measurements of an elementary surface mode in an ultracold, strongly interacting Fermi gas of 6Li^{6}\mathrm{Li}6Li atoms. The radial quadrupole mode allows us to probe hydrodynamic behavior in the crossover from Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) regime without being influenced by changes in the equation of state. We examine the frequency and damping of this mode, along with its expansion dynamics. In the unitarity limit and on the BEC side of the resonance, the observed frequencies agree with standard hydrodynamic theory. However, on the BCS side of the crossover, a striking downshift of the oscillation frequency is observed in the hydrodynamic regime as a precursor to an abrupt transition to collisionless behavior; this indicates coupling of the oscillation to fermionic pairs.
We report on the expansion of an ultracold Fermi-Fermi mixture of (6)Li and (40)K under conditions of strong interactions controlled via an interspecies Feshbach resonance. We study the expansion of the mixture after release from the trap and, in a narrow magnetic-field range, we observe two phenomena related to hydrodynamic behavior. The common inversion of the aspect ratio is found to be accompanied by a collective effect where both species stick together and expand jointly despite of their widely different masses. Our work constitutes a major experimental step for a controlled investigation of the many-body physics of this novel strongly interacting quantum system.
This work describes experiments with quantum-degenerate atomic mixtures at ultracold temperatures, where quantum statistics determine macroscopic system properties. The first heteronuclear molecules at ultracold temperatures are formed in a quantum degenerate two-species Fermi-Fermi mixture on the repulsive side of a narrow s-wave Feshbach resonance. Elastic collisions in this mixture are investigated with the method of cross-dimensional relaxation. Long-lived two-body bound states on the atomic side of the resonance are detected due to a many-body effect at the crossover of the narrow Feshbach resonance. In addition, atom scattering with fermionic 40K on a light field grating in the Bragg and Kapitza-Dirac regimes is realized for the first time. The versatile experimental platform, where the investigations are done, offers the possibility to perform studies on mixtures involving the bosonic species 87Rb and the two fermionic species 6Li and 40K. Within this work, mainly interactions between the two fermionic species are considered. A quantum-degenerate mixture of 6Li and 40K can be used to create heteronuclear bosonic molecules close to an interspecies s-wave Feshbach resonance. By an adiabatic magnetic field sweep, up to 4 × 10^4 molecules are produced with conversion efficiencies close to 50%. A direct and sensitive molecule detection method is developed to probe molecule properties. The lifetime of the molecules in an atom-molecule mixture exhibits a strong magnetic field dependence. Close to resonance, lifetimes of more than 100ms are observed what offers excellent starting conditions for further investigation and manipulation of the molecular cloud. The interspecies Feshbach resonance, which serves for the production of molecules, is further characterized. The method of cross-dimensional relaxation is applied for the first time to a Fermi-Fermi mixture. For this method, a non-equilibrium state is created, which rethermalizes by pure interspecies collisions due to the fermionic nature of the two species. The lighter atomic species, 6Li, relaxes faster in the mixture than the heavier one, 40K. This is verified by an analytical model, Monte-Carlo simulations, and measurements. With this technique, elastic scattering cross sections are measured over a wide range of magnetic field strengths across the Feshbach resonance. The position (B0 = 154.71(5)G) and the magnetic field width of the Feshbach resonance (Delta = 1.02(7)G) are determined. By comparison of the several measurements, long-lived bound states exist on the atomic side of the resonance due to a many-body effect in the crossover regime of the resonance. In addition, atomic scattering with ultracold 40K on a light field crystal is studied for the first time. The light grating is generated by two counter-propagating laser beams. Suitable pulse parameters for the realization of atom scattering in the Bragg and Kapitza-Dirac regime are found. The momentum spread of the cloud determines the efficiency of the scattering process, which is increased by lowering the temperature of the system.