Miscibility Regimes in a 23Na–39K Quantum Mixture

Abstract

The effects of miscibility in interacting two-component classical fluids are relevant in a broad range of daily applications. When considering quantum systems, two-component Bose–Einstein condensates provide a well-controlled platform where the miscible–immiscible phase transition can be completely characterized. In homogeneous systems, this phase transition is governed only by the competition between intra- and inter-species interactions. However, in more conventional experiments dealing with trapped gases, the pressure of the confinement increases the role of the kinetic energy and makes the system more miscible. In the most general case, the miscibility phase diagram of unbalanced mixtures of different atomic species is strongly modified by the atom number ratio and the different gravitational sags. Here, we numerically investigate the ground-state of a 23Na–39K quantum mixture for different interaction strengths and atom number ratios considering realistic experimental parameters. Defining the spatial overlap between the resulting atomic clouds, we construct the phase diagram of the miscibility transition which could be directly measured in real experiments.