Instability of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov states in atomic Fermi gases in three and two dimensions

Jibiao Wang, Yanming Che, Leifeng Zhang, and Qijin Chen

Phys. Rev. B 97, 134513 – Published 16 April 2018

Abstract

The exotic Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states have been actively searched for experimentally since the mean-field based FFLO theories were put forward half a century ago. Here, we investigate the stability of FFLO states in the presence of pairing fluctuations. We conclude that FFLO superfluids cannot exist in continuum in three and two dimensions, due to their intrinsic instability, associated with infinite quantum degeneracy of the pairs. These results address the absence of convincing experimental observations of FFLO phases in both condensed matter and in ultracold atomic Fermi gases with a population imbalance. We predict that the true ground state has a pair momentum distribution highly peaked on an entire constant energy surface.

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Received 23 June 2017
Revised 3 April 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.134513

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

FFLO Superconducting fluctuations Superconducting gap Superconducting phase transition

Superconductors

BCS theory Methods in superconductivity

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Jibiao Wang^1,2,3, Yanming Che^1,2, Leifeng Zhang^1,2, and Qijin Chen^1,2,4,*

¹Department of Physics and Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, China
²Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
³Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Metrology, School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-Sen University (Zhuhai Campus), Zhuhai, Guangdong 519082, China
⁴James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

^*Corresponding author:qchen@uchicago.edu

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Vol. 97, Iss. 13 — 1 April 2018

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