Stabilization of the p-wave superfluid state in an optical lattice

Unitary p-wave interactions between fermions in an optical lattice

Exchange-antisymmetric pair wavefunctions in fermionic systems can give rise to unconventional superconductors and superfluids^1-3. The realization of these states in controllable quantum systems, such as ultracold gases, could enable new types of quantum simulations^4-8, topological quantum gates^9-11 and exotic few-body states^12-15. However, p-wave and other antisymmetric interactions are weak in naturally occurring systems^16,17, and their enhancement via Feshbach resonances in ultracold systems has been limited by three-body loss^18-24. Here we create isolated pairs of spin-polarized fermionic atoms in a multiorbital three-dimensional optical lattice. We spectroscopically measure elastic p-wave interaction energies of strongly interacting pairs of atoms near a magnetic Feshbach resonance. The interaction strengths are widely tunable by the magnetic field and confinement strength, and yet collapse onto a universal curve when rescaled by the harmonic energy and length scales of a single lattice site. The absence of three-body processes enables the observation of elastic unitary p-wave interactions, as well as coherent oscillations between free-atom and interacting-pair states. All observations are compared both to an exact solution using a p-wave pseudopotential and to numerical solutions using an ab initio interaction potential. The understanding and control of on-site p-wave interactions provides a necessary component for the assembly of multiorbital lattice models^25,26 and a starting point for investigations of how to protect such systems from three-body recombination in the presence of tunnelling, for instance using Pauli blocking and lattice engineering^27,28.

Collective Excitations and Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in Dissipative Fermionic Superfluids

We predict a new mechanism to induce collective excitations and a nonequilibrium phase transition of fermionic superfluids via a sudden switch on of two-body loss, for which we extend the BCS theory to fully incorporate a change in particle number. We find that a sudden switch on of dissipation induces an amplitude oscillation of the superfluid order parameter accompanied by a chirped phase rotation as a consequence of particle loss. We demonstrate that when dissipation is introduced to one of the two superfluids coupled via a Josephson junction, it gives rise to a nonequilibrium dynamical phase transition characterized by the vanishing dc Josephson current. The dissipation-induced collective modes and nonequilibrium phase transition can be realized with ultracold fermionic atoms subject to inelastic collisions.

Stable p-Wave Resonant Two-Dimensional Fermi-Bose Dimers

We consider two-dimensional weakly bound heterospecies molecules formed in a Fermi-Bose mixture with attractive Fermi-Bose and repulsive Bose-Bose interactions. Bosonic exchanges lead to an intermolecular attraction, which can be controlled and tuned to a p-wave resonance. Such attractive fermionic molecules can be realized in quasi-two-dimensional ultracold isotopic mixtures. We show that they are stable with respect to the recombination to deeply bound molecular states and with respect to the formation of higher-order clusters (trimers, tetramers, etc.).

Floquet Topological Superfluid and Majorana Zero Modes in Two-Dimensional Periodically Driven Fermi Systems

We propose a simple approach to realize two-dimensional Floquet topological superfluid by periodically tuning the depth of square optical lattice potentials. We show that the periodic driving can induce topological phase transitions between trivial superfluid and Floquet topological superfluid. For this systems we verify the anomalous bulk-boundary correspondence, namely that the robust chiral Floquet edge states can appear even when the winding number of all the bulk Floquet bands is zero. We establish the existence of two Floquet Majorana zero modes separated in the quasienergy space, with ε_0,π = 0,π/T at the topological defects.

Observation of the Mott insulator to superfluid crossover of a driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard system

Dissipation is ubiquitous in nature and plays a crucial role in quantum systems such as causing decoherence of quantum states. Recently, much attention has been paid to an intriguing possibility of dissipation as an efficient tool for the preparation and manipulation of quantum states. We report the realization of successful demonstration of a novel role of dissipation in a quantum phase transition using cold atoms. We realize an engineered dissipative Bose-Hubbard system by introducing a controllable strength of two-body inelastic collision via photoassociation for ultracold bosons in a three-dimensional optical lattice. In the dynamics subjected to a slow ramp-down of the optical lattice, we find that strong on-site dissipation favors the Mott insulating state: The melting of the Mott insulator is delayed, and the growth of the phase coherence is suppressed. The controllability of the dissipation is highlighted by quenching the dissipation, providing a novel method for investigating a quantum many-body state and its nonequilibrium dynamics.

Pairing Dynamics of Polar States in a Quenched p-Wave Superfluid Fermi Gas

We study the pairing dynamics of polar states in a single species p-wave superfluid Fermi gas following a sudden change of the interaction strength. The anisotropy of pair interaction together with the presence of the centrifugal barrier results in profoundly different pairing dynamics compared to the s-wave case. Depending on the direction of quenches, quench to the BCS regime results in large oscillatory depletion of momentum occupation inside the Fermi sea or large oscillatory filling of momentum occupation. A crucial role of the resonant state supported by the centrifugal barrier in the pairing dynamics is elucidated.

Suppressing the loss of ultracold molecules via the continuous quantum Zeno effect

We investigate theoretically the suppression of two-body losses when the on-site loss rate is larger than all other energy scales in a lattice. This work quantitatively explains the recently observed suppression of chemical reactions between two rotational states of fermionic KRb molecules confined in one-dimensional tubes with a weak lattice along the tubes [Yan et al., Nature (London) 501, 521 (2013)]. New loss rate measurements performed for different lattice parameters but under controlled initial conditions allow us to show that the loss suppression is a consequence of the combined effects of lattice confinement and the continuous quantum Zeno effect. A key finding, relevant for generic strongly reactive systems, is that while a single-band theory can qualitatively describe the data, a quantitative analysis must include multiband effects. Accounting for these effects reduces the inferred molecule filling fraction by a factor of 5. A rate equation can describe much of the data, but to properly reproduce the loss dynamics with a fixed fillingfraction for all lattice parameters we develop a mean-field model and benchmark it with numerically exacttime-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculations.