Superfluid density reduction and spin-imbalanced pairing in a fermionic superfluid due to dynamical boson exchange

Abstract

We explore novel features of a nonrelativistic fermionic superfluid in which the pairing interaction includes a contribution from the exchange of a dynamical bosonic mode. We show that the dynamical boson exchange (DBE), which causes a retarded pairing interaction and thus violates the Galilean invariance of the fermion sector, generically leads to a quantum reduction of the superfluid density and hence a nonzero normal fraction even at zero temperature. For spin-singlet pairing, the DBE also leads to a nonvanishing spin susceptibility at zero temperature, providing a mechanism for the coexistence of pairing and magnetization. While these effects are negligible for weak pairing, they become sizable at strong pairing. For the double superfluidity in ultracold Fermi-Bose mixtures, the superfluid density reduction for the fermion sector induced by the DBE just gives rise to the Andreev-Bashkin drag effect, indicating a strong entrainment between the two superfluid components. The DBE may also provide a new source for the superfluid fraction reduction of neutron matter, which is crucial for models of neutron star glitches based on neutron superfluidity.