We investigate the problem of mechanical stability in two-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixtures at zero temperature, focusing on systems with a tunable Bose-Fermi (BF) interaction and a weak but finite boson-boson (BB) repulsion. The analysis is carried out within the framework of the lowest-order constrained variational (LOCV) approach, which allows for a nonperturbative treatment of strong interspecies correlations while retaining analytical transparency. The BF interaction is modeled by a properly regularized attractive contact potential, enabling the exploration of both the attractive and repulsive energy branches. We determine the minimal BB repulsion required to ensure mechanical stability of the mixture by evaluating the inverse compressibility matrix over the full range of BF coupling strengths, within the domain of validity of the LOCV approximation. The interaction contribution to the energy is benchmarked against available experimental data and quantum Monte Carlo results in the single-impurity limit, showing good agreement. Our analysis reveals how the critical BB coupling depends on interaction strength, density imbalance, and mass ratio. In particular, we find that mixtures with equal boson and fermion masses exhibit enhanced stability, requiring the smallest BB repulsion to prevent mechanical instability. In this case, a relatively small BB interaction is sufficient to stabilize attractive mixtures for all values of the BF interaction. These results provide a theoretical framework for assessing stability conditions in experimentally realizable two-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixtures with tunable interactions.
We investigate the problem of mechanical stability in two-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixtures at zero temperature, focusing on systems with a tunable Bose-Fermi (BF) interaction and a weak but finite boson-boson (BB) repulsion. The analysis is carried out within the framework of the lowest-order constrained variational (LOCV) approach, which allows for a nonperturbative treatment of strong interspecies correlations while retaining analytical transparency. The BF interaction is modeled by a properly regularized attractive contact potential, enabling the exploration of both the attractive and repulsive energy branches. We determine the minimal BB repulsion required to ensure mechanical stability of the mixture by evaluating the inverse compressibility matrix over the full range of BF coupling strengths, within the domain of validity of the LOCV approximation. The interaction contribution to the energy is benchmarked against available experimental data and quantum Monte Carlo results in the single-impurity limit, showing good agreement. Our analysis reveals how the critical BB coupling depends on interaction strength, density imbalance, and mass ratio. In particular, we find that mixtures with equal boson and fermion masses exhibit enhanced stability, requiring the smallest BB repulsion to prevent mechanical instability. In this case, a relatively small BB interaction is sufficient to stabilize attractive mixtures for all values of the BF interaction. These results provide a theoretical framework for assessing stability conditions in experimentally realizable two-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixtures with tunable interactions.
In this thesis, we investigate ultracold Bose-Fermi mixtures in both two and three dimensions using a non-perturbative approach based on the Lowest Order Constrained Variational (LOCV) method. This variational technique, originally developed in the context of nuclear matter, is applied here to dilute quantum gases at zero temperature, allowing for an accurate treatment of two-body correlations beyond perturbative limits. We begin by analysing Bose-Fermi mixtures near a broad Fano-Feshbach resonance, which enables precise tuning of the interspecies interaction strength. Particular attention is devoted to the low-dimensional case, where quantum fluctuations are enhanced and experimental realizations have become increasingly accessible. While the three-dimensional problem serves as a useful benchmark, the two-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixture presents unique challenges. Notably, no prior non-perturbative studies exist on its mechanical stability. A central goal of this work is to determine the conditions under which the 2D Bose-Fermi mixture remains mechanically stable as the boson-fermion attraction is increased. Our results demonstrate that the LOCV approach captures the relevant physics from weak to moderate coupling, offering a complementary perspective to perturbative methods or alternative non-perturbative approaches such as the T-matrix formalism. In this coupling range, we identify the critical strength of boson-boson repulsion necessary to prevent phase separation or collapse, thereby providing the first theoretical variational prediction of a stability phase diagram in this two dimensional regime. Overall, this work fills a gap in the literature and provides a useful reference point for future theoretical and experimental studies of strongly interacting Bose-Fermi systems in reduced dimensionality.
We investigate the mechanical stability of Bose-Fermi mixtures at zero temperature in the presence of a tunable Feshbach resonance, which induces a competition between boson condensation and boson-fermion pairing when the boson density is smaller than the fermion density. Using a many-body diagrammatic approach validated by fixed-node Quantum Monte Carlo calculations and supported by recent experimental observations, we determine the minimal amount of boson-boson repulsion required to guarantee the stability of the mixture across the entire range of boson-fermion interactions from weak to strong coupling. Our stability phase diagrams indicate that mixtures with boson-to-fermion mass ratios near two, such as the ^{87} 87 Rb- ^{40} 40 K system, exhibit optimal stability conditions. Moreover, by applying our results to a recent experiment with a ^{23} 23 Na- ^{40} 40 K mixture, we find that the boson-boson repulsion was insufficient to ensure stability, suggesting that the experimental timescale was short enough to avoid mechanical collapse. On the other hand, we also show that even in the absence of boson-boson repulsion, Bose-Fermi mixtures become intrinsically stable beyond a certain coupling strength, preceding the quantum phase transition associated with the vanishing of the bosonic condensate. We thus propose an experimental protocol for observing this quantum phase transition in a mechanically stable configuration.
We study static properties of attractively interacting Bose-Fermi mixtures of uniform atomic gases at zero temperature. Using the Green's function formalism, we calculate the boson-fermion scattering amplitude and the fermion self-energy in the medium to lowest order of the hole-line expansion. We study the ground-state energy and pressure as a function of the scattering length for a few values of the boson-fermion mass ratio mb∕mf and the number ratio Nb∕Nf. We find that the attractive contribution to the energy is greatly enhanced for small values of the mass ratio. We study the role of Bose-Fermi pair correlations in the mixture by calculating the pole of the boson-fermion scattering amplitude in the medium. The pole shows a standard quasiparticle dispersion for a Bose-Fermi pair. In addition, we also study the fermion dispersion relation. We find two dispersion branches with the possibility of avoided crossings. This strongly depends on the number ratio Nb∕Nf.
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].
We analyze a two-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixture at zero temperature in the presence of a tunable Bose-Fermi attraction. We adopt a diagrammatic T -matrix approach and study the behavior of several thermodynamic quantities for the two species as functions of density, mass ratio, and coupling strength. These include the chemical potentials, the boson momentum distribution function, the condensate density, and Tan's contact parameter. We analytically demonstrate that the present T -matrix formalism recovers the correct second-order perturbative expansion of the chemical potentials in the weak-coupling regime, and test it numerically. The near-universal behavior of the condensate fraction already found in prior work for the mass-balanced case is confirmed for different masses and becomes even more accurate when the boson mass is large. The mass imbalance emerges as an additional control parameter that qualitatively affects the bosonic momentum distribution. In particular, we found that it can be used to allow for the experimental observation of a peculiar peak in the boson momentum distribution at finite momentum.
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.