Mediated interactions in mixtures of ultracold atoms
Ando, Henry, Geyue Cai, Cheng Chin +1 more
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.
arXiv:2511.09745•Nov 12, 2025•0 citations