The Moving Fermi Polaron

The Fermi polaron, formed by an impurity interacting with a surrounding Fermi sea, exemplifies the canonical quasiparticle concept as a cornerstone in our description of quantum many-body systems across a wide range of energy scales. Experiments on atomic quantum gases have provided profound insights into the universal nature of the Fermi polaron. While most previous studies have focused on the case of zero impurity momentum, finite-momentum properties have remained largely uncharted. Here, we investigate the moving Fermi polaron by combining a novel Raman acceleration scheme with high-precision radio-frequency spectroscopy, exploring the quasiparticle dispersion relation over a wide range of momenta. We compare our measurements of energy shifts and spectral linewidths with a microscopic theory and reach quantitative agreement for all momenta. For low momenta, we find the energy of the moving polaron to be fully consistent with the Fermi liquid picture of a dressed particle with a constant effective mass. At high momenta, the polaron approaches the behavior of a weakly interacting bare particle, featuring small energy shifts and weak broadening. For intermediate momenta, broadening is generally larger and, most strikingly, the behavior differs for attractive and repulsive polarons. While the repulsive polaron exhibits a smooth connection between both regimes along with a monotonic change of the energy shift, the attractive case shows a peculiar non-monotonic behavior. With increasing momentum, the attractive polaron enters a regime where its energy deviates from the constant effective mass expression and broadening suddenly increases. By comparing this observation with theory, we show that this abrupt behavior coincides with the attractive polaron entering a molecule-hole continuum, where it is no longer the ground state. We interpret this as a motion-induced polaron-molecule transition.The Fermi polaron, formed by an impurity interacting with a surrounding Fermi sea, exemplifies the canonical quasiparticle concept as a cornerstone in our description of quantum many-body systems across a wide range of energy scales. Experiments on atomic quantum gases have provided profound insights into the universal nature of the Fermi polaron. While most previous studies have focused on the case of zero impurity momentum, finite-momentum properties have remained largely uncharted. Here, we investigate the moving Fermi polaron by combining a novel Raman acceleration scheme with high-precision radio-frequency spectroscopy, exploring the quasiparticle dispersion relation over a wide range of momenta. We compare our measurements of energy shifts and spectral linewidths with a microscopic theory and reach quantitative agreement for all momenta. For low momenta, we find the energy of the moving polaron to be fully consistent with the Fermi liquid picture of a dressed particle with a constant effective mass. At high momenta, the polaron approaches the behavior of a weakly interacting bare particle, featuring small energy shifts and weak broadening. For intermediate momenta, broadening is generally larger and, most strikingly, the behavior differs for attractive and repulsive polarons. While the repulsive polaron exhibits a smooth connection between both regimes along with a monotonic change of the energy shift, the attractive case shows a peculiar non-monotonic behavior. With increasing momentum, the attractive polaron enters a regime where its energy deviates from the constant effective mass expression and broadening suddenly increases. By comparing this observation with theory, we show that this abrupt behavior coincides with the attractive polaron entering a molecule-hole continuum, where it is no longer the ground state. We interpret this as a motion-induced polaron-molecule transition.

cond-mat.quant-gasCross-listedarXiv:2606.21567Jun 22, 20260 citations

The Dynamics of Polarons

Eduardo C. Marino

Cambridge University Press eBooksOct 25, 20170 citations

Polarons in Alkaline-earth-like Atoms with Multi Background Fermi Surfaces

Jinge Chen, Yue-Ran Shi, Zhang, Xiang +1 more

We study the impurity problem in a Fermi gas of $^{173}$ Yb atoms near an orbital Feshbach resonance, where a single moving particle in the $^3P_0$ state interacting with two background Fermi seas of particles in different nuclear states of the ground $^1S_0$ manifold. By employing wave function ansatzs for molecule and polaron states, we investigate various properties of the molecule, the attractive polaron, and the repulsive polaron states. We find that in comparison to the case of only one Fermi sea is populated, the presence of an additional Fermi sea acts as an energy shift between the two channels of the orbital Feshbach resonance. Besides, the fluctuation around the Fermi level would also bring sizable effects to the attractive and repulsive polaron states.We study the impurity problem in a Fermi gas of $^{173}$Yb atoms near an orbital Feshbach resonance, where a single moving particle in the $^3P_0$ state interacting with two background Fermi seas of particles in different nuclear states of the ground $^1S_0$ manifold. By employing wave function ansatzs for molecule and polaron states, we investigate various properties of the molecule, the attractive polaron, and the repulsive polaron states. We find that in comparison to the case of only one Fermi sea is populated, the presence of an additional Fermi sea acts as an energy shift between the two channels of the orbital Feshbach resonance. Besides, the fluctuation around the Fermi level would also bring sizable effects to the attractive and repulsive polaron states.

arXiv:1801.09375Jan 29, 20181 citation

Spectral Theory of the Fermi Polaron

Marcel Griesemer, Ulrich Linden

arXiv:1805.07229Annales Henri PoincaréApr 17, 201911 citations

Polarons in alkaline-earth-like atoms with multiple background Fermi surfaces

Jinge Chen, Yue-Ran Shi, Xiang Zhang +1 more

We study the impurity problem in a Fermi gas of 173 Yb atoms near an orbital Feshbach resonance (OFR), where a single moving particle in the 3 P 0 state interacts with two background Fermi seas of particles in different nuclear states of the ground 1 S 0 manifold. By employing wave function ansatz to molecule and polaron states, we investigate various properties of the molecule, the attractive polaron, and the repulsive polaron states. In comparison to the case where only one Fermi sea is populated, we find that the presence of an additional Fermi sea acts as an energy shift between the two channels of the OFR. In addition, quantum fluctuations near the Fermi level can also induce sizable effects to various properties of the attractive and repulsive polarons.We study the impurity problem in a Fermi gas of 173 Yb atoms near an orbital Feshbach resonance (OFR), where a single moving particle in the 3 P 0 state interacts with two background Fermi seas of particles in different nuclear states of the ground 1 S 0 manifold. By employing wave function ansatz to molecule and polaron states, we investigate various properties of the molecule, the attractive polaron, and the repulsive polaron states. In comparison to the case where only one Fermi sea is populated, we find that the presence of an additional Fermi sea acts as an energy shift between the two channels of the OFR. In addition, quantum fluctuations near the Fermi level can also induce sizable effects to various properties of the attractive and repulsive polarons.

Frontiers of PhysicsJun 9, 20183 citations

We study the impurity problem in a Fermi gas of

^{173}

Yb atoms near an orbital Feshbach resonance, where a single moving particle in the

^3P_0

state interacting with two background Fermi seas of particles in different nuclear states of the ground

^1S_0

manifold. By employing wave function ansatzs for molecule and polaron states, we investigate various properties of the molecule, the attractive polaron, and the repulsive polaron states. We find that in comparison to the case of only one Fermi sea is populated, the presence of an additional Fermi sea acts as an energy shift between the two channels of the orbital Feshbach resonance. Besides, the fluctuation around the Fermi level would also bring sizable effects to the attractive and repulsive polaron states.