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arXiv:2607.25267 · Physical Review A

Tuning Density and Spin Ordering of Degenerate Fermi Gases in an Optical Cavity

Wei Qin, Yuan-Hong Chen, Renyuan Liao

cond-mat.quant-gasquant-phSubmitted Jul 28, 2026• Announced Jul 29, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We investigate a spin-degenerate Fermi gas coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity, where the competition between scalar and vectorial couplings is controlled by the relative polarization angle of the pump and cavity fields. We find that the phase transition threshold is synergistically determined by the scalar-vectorial coupling weight and Pauli blocking, with the latter dictating the critical pump lattice depth required for the onset of superradiance. For a two-component Fermi gas with opposite spins, the population ratio drives two distinct types of phase transitions corresponding to real-space phase separation: continuous and discontinuous. Nevertheless, the boundary of the phase transition remains fundamentally governed by the scalar-vectorial coupling competition. We clarify the impact of the relative polarization angle on phase transitions of the system; these results also apply to bosonic systems. Our results provide valuable theoretical insights for future experimental realizations.

Journal reference
Phys. Rev. A 114, L011302 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/r41b-5kc2
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures

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Coupling Bose-Einstein condensates to optical cavities has enabled the study of many-body states with long-range interactions. However, equivalent experiments with ultracold Fermi gases have remained largely unexplored. Here, we report an experimental realization of a superradiant quantum phase transition of a degenerate Fermi gas in a transversely pumped optical cavity. The self-ordering checkerboard density pattern of Fermi gases and superradiant transitions of the cavity field spontaneously emerge by increasing the pumping intensity above a threshold value. The effects of Fermi statistics are manifested by an inverse square root scaling of the threshold with atom number and the slow dynamics of low–atomic momentum states. Our work provides an ideal platform for studying nonequilibirium dynamics of many-body states for long-range interacting Fermi gases.
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