The Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction and Efimov physics are two distinct quantum phenomena in condensed matter and nuclear physics, respectively. The RKKY interaction describes correlations between impurities mediated by an electron gas, while Efimov physics describes universal bound states of three particles with resonant interactions. Recently, both effects have been observed in Bose-Fermi mixtures in the weak and resonant interaction regimes, respectively. Intriguing conjectures exist to elucidate how the two phenomena meet in the transition regime where the mixture is strongly interacting. In this Letter, we explore the RKKY-Efimov transition in a mixture of bosonic ^{133}Cs and fermionic ^{6}Li near a tunable interspecies Feshbach resonance. From dispersion and relaxation measurements, we find that the transition is highlighted by a fermion-mediated scattering resonance between Cs atoms and a weaker resonance on Li atoms. These resonances represent reactive scattering of Cs and Li atoms in the many-body regime, which reduce to an Efimov resonance in the thermal gas regime. Our observation demonstrates the intriguing interplay of two-, three-, and many-body physics in a Bose-Fermi mixture that connects condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and quantum many-body chemistry.
The Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction and Efimov physics are two distinct quantum phenomena in condensed matter and nuclear physics, respectively. The RKKY interaction describes correlations between impurities mediated by an electron gas, while Efimov physics describes universal bound states of three particles with resonant interactions. Recently, both effects have been observed in Bose-Fermi mixtures in the weak and resonant interaction regimes, respectively. Intriguing conjectures exist to elucidate how the two phenomena meet in the transition regime where the mixture is strongly interacting. In this Letter, we explore the RKKY-Efimov transition in a mixture of bosonic ^{133}Cs and fermionic ^{6}Li near a tunable interspecies Feshbach resonance. From dispersion and relaxation measurements, we find that the transition is highlighted by a fermion-mediated scattering resonance between Cs atoms and a weaker resonance on Li atoms. These resonances represent reactive scattering of Cs and Li atoms in the many-body regime, which reduce to an Efimov resonance in the thermal gas regime. Our observation demonstrates the intriguing interplay of two-, three-, and many-body physics in a Bose-Fermi mixture that connects condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and quantum many-body chemistry.
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.
This thesis reports measurements of interactions in Fermi-Bose 6Li-133Cs mixtures. Precise control of this Bose-Fermi mixture allowed us to probe few-body physics in regimes which were previously inaccessible. In particular, we performed the first model-independent test of geometric scaling of Efimov physics and probed Efimov resonances farther in the weakly coupled, narrow resonance regime than previously possible.,For this work, we built a new apparatus which overcomes the many challenges faced by Li-Cs mixtures. We developed several novel dipole trapping schemes which overcome the difficulties of mixing Li and Cs, including the large differences in initial trapping and cooling between these atomic species and a large differential gravitational sag. We also achieved part per million level magnetic field control near 900 G, necessary for the precise measurements near narrow Feshbach resonances undertaken in this thesis, by pioneering a tomographic magnetic field calibration technique.,With this apparatus, we first probed the Feshbach resonances of the Li-Cs mixture. This is an essential first step, allowing us to understand and control the two-body interactions between our atoms. Next we began to probe Efimov physics, an important three-body phenomenon wherein an infinite series of three-body bound states arise near two-body scattering resonances, such as Feshbach resonances. We demonstrated the universal scaling expected theoretically for Efimov states near a Feshbach resonance. This task was made feasible in our system by a reduced Efimov scaling constant, yet still required precise magnetic field control. Finally, additional universal behavior of the first Efimov resonance has been observed empirically in a variety of atomic systems. While theory has explained this observed universality, predictions also indicate departures for narrow Feshbach resonances, contrary to previous experimental results. By further improving our magnetic field control to probe a very narrow Feshbach resonance, we have observed a departure from the universal first Efimov resonance, helping to resolve this conflict between experiment and theory.
We investigate theoretically and experimentally the heteronuclear Efimov scenario for a three-body system that consists of two bosons and one distinguishable particle with positive intraspecies scattering lengths. The three-body parameter at the three-body scattering threshold and the scaling factor between consecutive Efimov resonances are found to be controlled by the scattering length between the two bosons, approximately independent of short-range physics. We observe two excited-state Efimov resonances in the three-body recombination spectra of an ultracold mixture of fermionic ^{6}Li and bosonic ^{133}Cs atoms close to a Li-Cs Feshbach resonance, where the Cs-Cs interaction is positive. Deviation of the obtained scaling factor of 4.0(3) from the universal prediction of 4.9 and the absence of the ground state Efimov resonance shed new light on the interpretation of the universality and the discrete scaling behavior of heteronuclear Efimov physics.
Motivated by recent experiments on $^{6}\mathrm{Li}\text{\ensuremath{-}}^{133}\mathrm{Cs}$ atomic mixtures with high mass imbalance, we study the Efimov correlation in an atomic system of two heavy bosons (133Cs) immersed in a bath of light fermions (6Li). Using the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, we identify two different regimes, depending on the Fermi momentum of light fermions (kF) and the boson-fermion scattering length as(<0), where the presence of an underlying Fermi sea plays distinct roles in the Efimov-type binding of bosons. Namely, in the regime ${k}_{F}|{a}_{s}|\ensuremath{\lesssim}1$ (${k}_{F}|{a}_{s}|\ensuremath{\gtrsim}1$), the Fermi sea induces an attractive (repulsive) effective interaction between bosons and thus favors (disfavors) the formation of a bound state, which can be seen as an Efimov trimer dressed by a fermion cloud. Interestingly, this implies nonmonotonic behavior of these bound states as increasing the fermion density (or kF). Moreover, we establish a generalized universal scaling law for the emergence and variation of such dressed Efimov bound states when incorporating a new scale (kF) brought on by the Fermi sea. These results can be directly tested in Li-Cs cold-atom experiments by measuring the modified bound-state spectrum and the shifted Efimov resonance, which manifest an emergent nontrivial Efimov correlation in a fermionic many-body environment.
This thesis reports on scattering experiments performed with an ultracold mixture of fermionic 6Li and bosonic 133Cs atoms, studying two-, few-, and many-body effects in a highly mass-imbalanced system. To this end, the existing apparatus for the creation of ultracold gases is extended and improved by gray molasses cooling of 6Li and high-resolution absorption imaging. s-, p-, and d-wave Feshbach resonances in the two energetically lowest hyperfine channels are detected via atom-loss and binding energy spectroscopy. These measurements in combination with the coupled channels modeling provide a ten-fold improved parametrization of the interspecies s-wave scattering length and precise determination of the LiCs molecular potential curves. For the first time effects of spin-rotation coupling in Feshbach resonances are observed, reflected in a triplet splitting of the p-wave components. The influence of the intraspecies scattering length on the heteronuclear Efimov scenario is studied by means of threebody loss rate measurements in the vicinity of two Feshbach resonances, characterized either by a positive or negative intraspecies scattering length. The measurements are quantitatively compared to the hyperspherical adiabatic formalism. The positive intraspecies scattering length can be interpreted as three-body parameter. The impact of few-body physics in the many-body impurity problem is discussed and prospects for realization of quantum degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures with large mass imbalance are provided.
We study ultracold gases of alkali-metal atoms in the quantum degenerate regime. The interatomic interactions in these type of systems can be tuned using resonances induced by magnetic or electric fields. The tunability of the interactions, together with the possibility of confining the atoms with several kinds of external potentials, allows for a completely novel approach to study basic problems in many-body physics, and moreover, allows to enter regimes which have never been accessible in condensed matter or nuclear physics. For example, this has led to the experimental demonstration of an intimate relation between two types of superfluidity: the crossover from Bose-Einstein condensation of tightly bound molecules to the superfluid behavior related to weakly bound BCS-like pairs. Another experimental landmark was reached when the existence of universal Efimov three-body bound states was proven in experiments with ultracold bosonic cesium atoms. In this thesis, we study several aspects of these strongly interacting and ultracold atomic gases. We develop an analytical model that encapsulates all of the relevant scattering physics in atomic systems where open-channel shape resonances and closedchannel Feshbach resonances give rise to complicated and non-trivial scattering properties. This model provides lots of physical insight and is shown to describe important quantities, such as the molecular energies and scattering phase shifts, with a high level of accuracy. The model is compared to full numerical coupled-channel calculations in two atomic systems: rubidium and lithium. We study the BCS-BEC crossover using a many-body description of the ultracold gas that includes the non-trivial energy dependence of the scattering model. We show that it gives rise to superfluid behavior associated with the formation of BCS-like pairs while the low-energy interactions are repulsive in character. The energy dependence of the interactions is crucial, as it gives rise to attractive interactions at the Fermi energy, necessary for the formation of Cooper pairs. We demonstrate new ways of controlling the interatomic interactions using a combination of magnetic and electric fields. This leads to experimental control of, for instance, the three-body parameter in the context of Efimov physics and of non-universal behavior in the BCS-BEC crossover in fermionic gases. Using a four-body method based on first principles, we solve the molecule-molecule scattering problem to calculate several important properties of bosonic and fermionic Summary 145 molecules that consist of light and heavy atoms. These type of molecules are of current experimental interest, and we predict several exciting relations between three- and four-body observables in these type of systems.