Alexander Chuang | Searcharxiv

arXiv2023

Collective flow of fermionic impurities immersed in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Interacting mixtures of bosons and fermions are ubiquitous in nature. They form the backbone of the standard model of physics, provide a framework for understanding quantum materials and are of technological importance in helium dilution refrigerators. However, the description of their coupled thermodynamics and collective behaviour is challenging. Bose-Fermi mixtures of ultracold atoms provide a platform to investigate their properties in a highly controllable environment, where the species concentration and interaction strength can be tuned at will. Here we characterize the collective oscillations of spin-polarized fermionic impurities immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate as a function of the interaction strength and temperature. For strong interactions, the Fermi gas perfectly mimics the superfluid hydrodynamic modes of the condensate, from low-energy quadrupole modes to high-order Faraday excitations. With an increasing number of bosonic thermal excitations, the dynamics of the impurities cross over from the collisionless to the hydrodynamic regime, reminiscent of the emergence of hydrodynamics in two-dimensional electron fluids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Achieving translational symmetry in trapped cold ion rings

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a universal concept throughout science. For instance, the Landau-Ginzburg paradigm of translational symmetry breaking underlies the classification of nearly all quantum phases of matter and explains the emergence of crystals, insulators, and superconductors. Usually, the consequences of translational invariance are studied in large systems to suppress edge effects which cause undesired symmetry breaking. While this approach works for investigating global properties, studies of local observables and their correlations require access and control of the individual constituents. Periodic boundary conditions, on the other hand, could allow for translational symmetry in small systems where single particle control is achievable. Here, we crystallize up to fifteen 40Ca+ ions in a microscopic ring with inherent periodic boundary conditions. We show the ring's translational symmetry is preserved at millikelvin temperatures by delocalizing the Doppler laser cooled ions. This establishes an upper bound for undesired symmetry breaking at a level where quantum control becomes feasible. These findings pave the way towards studying quantum many-body physics with translational symmetry at the single particle level in a variety of disciplines from simulation of Hawking radiation to exploration of quantum phase transitions.

quant-ph↗