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Topological px+ipy superfluid phase of fermionic polar molecules

J. Levinsen, N. R. Cooper, and G. V. Shlyapnikov
Phys. Rev. A 84, 013603 – Published 7 July 2011
Physics logo See Synopsis: A new phase for molecular superfluidity

Abstract

We discuss the topological px+ipy superfluid phase in a two-dimensional (2D) gas of single-component fermionic polar molecules dressed by a circularly polarized microwave field. This phase emerges because the molecules may interact with each other via a potential V0(r) that has an attractive dipole-dipole 1/r3 tail, which provides p-wave superfluid pairing at fairly high temperatures. We calculate the amplitude of elastic p-wave scattering in the potential V0(r) taking into account both the anomalous scattering due to the dipole-dipole tail and the short-range contribution. This amplitude is then used for the analytical and numerical solution of the renormalized BCS gap equation which includes the second-order Gor’kov-Melik-Barkhudarov corrections and the correction related to the effective mass of the quasiparticles. We find that the critical temperature Tc can be varied within a few orders of magnitude by modifying the short-range part of the potential V0(r). The decay of the system via collisional relaxation of molecules to dressed states with lower energies is rather slow due to the necessity of a large momentum transfer. The presence of a constant transverse electric field reduces the inelastic rate, and the lifetime of the system can be of the order of seconds even at 2D densities ~109 cm2. This leads to Tc of up to a few tens of nanokelvins and makes it realistic to obtain the topological px+ipy phase in experiments with ultracold polar molecules.

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  • Received 20 March 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.84.013603

©2011 American Physical Society

Synopsis

Key Image

A new phase for molecular superfluidity

Published 8 July 2011

Theoretical analysis shows how exotic superfluidity might be observed in ultracold molecules.

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Authors & Affiliations

J. Levinsen1,2, N. R. Cooper1,2, and G. V. Shlyapnikov2,3,4

  • 1T.C.M. Group, University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, J.J. Thomson Ave., Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
  • 2Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques, CNRS and Université Paris Sud, UMR8626, 91405 Orsay, France
  • 3Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • 4Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-4030, USA

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Issue

Vol. 84, Iss. 1 — July 2011

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