We use the self-consistent mean-field theory to analyze the effects of Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on the ground-state phase diagram of population-imbalanced Fermi gases throughout the BCS-Bose-Einstein condensate evolution. We find that the SOC and population imbalance are counteracting, and that this competition tends to stabilize the uniform superfluid phase against the phase separation. However, we also show that the SOC stabilizes (destabilizes) the uniform superfluid phase against the normal phase for low (high) population imbalances. In addition, we find topological quantum phase transitions associated with the appearance of momentum-space regions with zero quasiparticle energies, and study their signatures in the momentum distribution.
We consider a general anisotropic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and analyze the phase diagrams of both balanced and imbalanced Fermi gases for the entire BCS-Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) evolution. In the first part, we use the self-consistent mean-field theory at zero temperature, and show that the topological structure of the ground-state phase diagrams is quite robust against the effects of anisotropy. In the second part, we go beyond the mean-field description, and investigate the effects of Gaussian fluctuations near the critical temperature. This allows us to derive the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory, from which we extract the effective mass of the Cooper pairs and their critical condensation temperature in the molecular BEC limit.
We present a numerical calculation for the static spin-symmetric and spin-antisymmetric local-field factors as a function of density in a two-dimensional ͑2D͒ unpolarized electron liquid. We use a recent analytical expression for the spin-resolved pair distribution function of a 2D electron liquid based on quantum Monte Carlo simulation data and accurate correlation energy as input to construct the local-field factors from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. We obtain good agreement with data from quantum Monte Carlo studies of the 2D electron liquid over an extensive range of density.
We analyze the effects of in-and out-of-plane Zeeman fields on the BCS-Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) evolution of a Fermi gas with equal Rashba-Dresselhaus (ERD) spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We show that the ground state of the system involves gapless superfluid phases that can be distinguished with respect to the topology of the momentum-space regions with zero excitation energy. For the BCS-like uniform superfluid phases with zero center-of-mass momentum, the zeros may correspond to one or two doubly degenerate spheres, two or four spheres, two or four concave spheroids, or one or two doubly degenerate circles, depending on the combination of Zeeman fields and SOC. Such changes in the topology signal a quantum phase transition between distinct superfluid phases and leave their signatures on some thermodynamic quantities. We also analyze the possibility of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-like nonuniform superfluid phases with finite centerof-mass momentum and obtain an even richer phase diagram.
We use the mean-field theory to analyze the ground-state phase diagrams of spin-orbit coupled massimbalanced Fermi gases throughout the BCS-BEC evolution, including both the population-balanced andimbalanced systems. Our calculations show that the competition between the mass and population imbalance and the Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling (SOC) gives rise to very rich phase diagrams, involving normal, superfluid and phase separated regions. In addition, we find quantum phase transitions between the topologically trivial gapped superfluid and the nontrivial gapless superfluid phases, opening the way for the experimental observation of exotic phenomena with cold atom systems.
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