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Stability and sensitivity of interacting fermionic superfluids to quenched disorder
Jennifer Koch1,2, Sian Barbosa1, Felix Lang1
1Department of Physics and Research Center OPTIMAS, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Nature Communications
|October 29, 2024
Summary
Ultracold Fermi gases show surprising resilience to disorder. Resonant superfluids lose quantum hydrodynamics, suggesting pairs absorb disorder energy.
Area of Science:
- Quantum physics
- Condensed matter physics
- Ultracold atomic gases
Background:
- Superfluid properties depend on microscopic pair structure.
- Delocalized pairs are more stable against static disorder than localized pairs.
- Ultracold gases allow tuning pair size, with resonant superfluids exhibiting high critical velocity.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the response of ultracold Fermi gases to time-dependent disorder.
- Explore sensitivity to disorder across different interaction regimes.
- Quantify long-range phase coherence via quantum hydrodynamic expansion.
Main Methods:
- Utilized ultracold, interacting Fermi gases.
- Applied rapid switching optical disorder potentials.
- Recorded quantum hydrodynamic expansion to measure phase coherence.
Main Results:
- Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) showed significant resilience to disorder quenches.
- Resonantly interacting Fermi gas permanently lost quantum hydrodynamics.
- Observed different responses based on interaction strength and pair localization.
Conclusions:
- Time-dependent disorder affects superfluids differently than static disorder.
- Resonantly interacting Fermi gases may have an additional absorption channel for disorder.
- Pair structure and interactions play a crucial role in superfluid stability under dynamic perturbations.
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