arXiv subjects

Eddy Timmermans

Publications and source records attributed to Eddy Timmermans.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Fermion-mediated interactions in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate

We develop a diagrammatic perturbation treatment to calculate the zero-temperature equation of state of the dilute gas mixture of a single spin component Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and a normal Fermi gas of indistinguishable (single spin) fermion particles. We find that the mean-field description breaks down near the mechanical instability related to the phase separation phenomenon. Our analysis shows that the instability is caused by the competition of the usual short-range and fermion-mediated boson-boson interactions, which result in a boson compressibility that diverges. In the low BEC-density limit, we show that the diagrammatic analysis simplifies, we sum part of the higher order diagrams, and we discuss the effects of other higher-order contributions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

BEC "level" for measuring small forces

We propose a device that consists of a trapped two-component phase- separated Bose-Einstein condensate to measure small forces and map weak potential energy landscapes. The resolution as well as the measurement precision of this device can be set dynamically, allowing measurements at multiple scales.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2007

Acoustic attenuation probe for fermion superfluidity in ultracold atom gases

Dilute gas Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC's), currently used to cool fermionic atoms in atom traps, can also probe the superfluidity of these fermions. The damping rate of BEC-acoustic excitations (phonon modes), measured in the middle of the trap as a function of the phonon momentum, yields an unambiguous signature of BCS-like superfluidity, provides a measurement of the superfluid gap parameter and gives an estimate of the size of the Cooper-pairs in the BEC-BCS crossover regime. We also predict kinks in the momentum dependence of the damping rate which can reveal detailed information about the fermion quasi-particle dispersion relation.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Acoustic attenuation rate in the Fermi-Bose model with a finite-range fermion-fermion interaction

We study the acoustic attenuation rate in the Fermi-Bose model describing a mixtures of bosonic and fermionic atom gases. We demonstrate the dramatic change of the acoustic attenuation rate as the fermionic component is evolved through the BEC-BCS crossover, in the context of a mean-field model applied to a finite-range fermion-fermion interaction at zero temperature, such as discussed previously by M.M. Parish et al. [Phys. Rev. B 71, 064513 (2005)] and B. Mihaila et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 090402 (2005)]. The shape of the acoustic attenuation rate as a function of the boson energy represents a signature for superfluidity in the fermionic component.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Self-localized impurities embedded in a one dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate and their quantum fluctuations

We consider the self-localization of neutral impurity atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate in a 1D model. Within the strong coupling approach, we show that the self-localized state exhibits parametric soliton behavior. The corresponding stationary states are analogous to the solitons of non-linear optics and to the solitonic solutions of the Schroedinger-Newton equation (which appears in models that consider the connection between quantum mechanics and gravitation). In addition, we present a Bogoliubov-de-Gennes formalism to describe the quantum fluctuations around the product state of the strong coupling description. Our fluctuation calculations yield the excitation spectrum and reveal considerable corrections to the strong coupling description. The knowledge of the spectrum allows a spectroscopic detection of the impurity self-localization phenomenon.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

Small polarons in dilute gas Bose-Einstein condensates

A neutral impurity atom immersed in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) can have a bound ground state in which the impurity is self-localized. In this small polaron-like state, the impurity distorts the density of the surrounding BEC, thereby creating the self-trapping potential minimum. We describe the self-localization in a strong coupling approach.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2005

Sympathetic cooling route to Bose-Einstein condensate and Fermi-liquid mixtures

We discuss a sympathetic cooling strategy that can successfully mitigate fermion-hole heating in a dilute atomic Fermi-Bose mixture and access the temperature regime in which the fermions behave as a Fermi liquid. We introduce an energy-based formalism to describe the temperature dynamics with which we study a specific and promising mixture composed of 6Li and 87Rb. Analyzing the harmonically trapped mixture, we find that the favourable features of this mixture are further enhanced by using different trapping frequencies for the two species.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Collective excitations of low density fermion-boson quantum-liquid mixtures

We investigate the collective excitations of a low temperature dilute gas mixture that consists of a Bose-Einstein condensate and a Fermi-gas that is a normal (i.e. non-superfluid) Fermi-liquid. We find that the BEC-mediated fermion-fermion interactions, as a consequence of retardation, can become repulsive and support a zero-sound mode that is essentially undamped. In addition, we find a damped zero-sound mode that can be described as a BEC-sound mode modified by fermion mediated boson-boson interactions, and we derive its decay-rate caused by Landau damping. We study the mode structure of these excitations and find avoided crossing behavior as well as a termination point. The collective mode dynamics also reveals that phase separation sets in when the fermion-mediated boson-boson interaction destroys the stability of the homogeneous BEC. We estimate the time and length scales of the onset of the phase separation, and we discuss the feasibility of experimentally probing these consequences of mediated interactions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2004

Zero sound in a single component fermion - Bose Einstein Condensate mixture

The resonant dynamics of mediated interactions supports zero-sound in a cold atom degenerate mixture of a single component fermion gas and a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We characterize the onset of instability in the phase separation of an unstable mixture and we find a rich collective mode structure for stable mixtures with one undamped mode that exhibits an avoided crossing and a Landau-damped mode that terminates.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

Degenerate fermion gas heating by hole creation

Loss processes that remove particles from an atom trap leave holes behind in the single particle distribution if the trapped gas is a degenerate fermion system. The appearance of holes increases the temperature and we show that the heating is (i) significant if the initial temperature is well below the Fermi temperature $T_{F}$, and (ii) increases the temperature to $T \geq T_{F}/4$ after half of the system's lifetime, regardless of the initial temperature. The hole heating has important consequences for the prospect of observing Cooper-pairing in atom traps.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

Prospect of creating a composite fermi/bose superfluid

We show that composite fermi/bose superfluids can be created in cold-atom traps by employing a Feshbach resonance or coherent photoassociation. The bosonic molecular condensate created in this way implies a new fermion pairing mechanism associated with the exchange of fermion pairs between the molecular condensate and an atomic fermion superfluid. We predict macroscopically coherent, Josephson-like oscillations of the atomic and molecular populations in response to a sudden change of the molecular energy, and suggest that these oscillations will provide an experimental signature of the pairing.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Driving superfluidity with photoassociation

We theoretically examine photoassociation of a two-component Fermi degenerate gas. Our focus is on adjusting the atom-atom interaction, and thereby increasing the critical temperature of the BCS transition to the superfluid state. In order to avoid spontaneous decay of the molecules, the photoassociating light must be far-off resonance. Very high light intensities are therefore required for effective control of the BCS transition.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv1998

Inter-Condensate Tunneling in Bose-Einstein Condensates with Feshbach Resonances

Recently, effects of Feshbach resonances in atom-atom interactions were observed by varying the external magnetic field of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We point out that the quasi-bound molecules created in the intermediate state of the resonance can form a second, molecular condensate. The many-body state of the system is then a hybrid atomic/molecular condensate with inter-condensate tunneling of atom pairs. A sudden variation of the magnetic field results in oscillations of the number of atoms and molecules in their respective condensates, providing a signature of this novel type of quantum tunneling.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1998

Feshbach Resonance and Hybrid Atomic/Molecular BEC-Systems

The interactions responsible for Feshbach resonances in binary atom collisions produce a condensate of molecules in the atomic BEC-system. We discuss the `ground state' of the condensate system and illustrate that its properties differ quantitatively and qualitatively from the properties of a single condensate with atom-atom interactions described by the effective scattering length that characterizes the binary atomic collisions. We show, for example, that the tunneling of atom pairs between the atomic and molecular condensates lowers the energy and can bind the condensate system, giving it the liquid-like property of a self-determined density.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1997

Phase separation of Bose-Einstein condensates

The zero-temperature system of two dilute overlapping Bose-Einstein condensates is unstable against long wavelength excitations if the interaction strength between the distinguishable bosons exceeds the geometric mean of the like-boson interaction strengths. If the condensates attract each other, the instability is similar to the instability of the negative scattering length condensates. If the condensates repel, they separate spatially into condensates of equal pressure. We estimate the boundary size, surface tension and energy of the phase separated condensate system and we discuss the implications for double condensates in atomic traps.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1997

The Hydrogen Atom as an Entangled Electron-Proton System

We illustrate the description of correlated subsystems by studying the simple two-body Hydrogen atom. We study the entanglement of the electron and proton coordinates in the exact analytical solution. This entanglement, which we quantify in the framework of the density matrix formalism, describes correlations in the electron-proton motion.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1997

Spin holography II

The interference of the directly emitted photoelectron wave and the wave scattered coherently by neighboring atoms gives holographic fringes in the photoelectron emission intensity $I(\hat{\bf R})$. In the electron emission holography technique in surface physics, $I(\hat{\bf R})$ is inverted holographically to give a 3D-image of the environment of the source atom. Earlier, we pointed out that the polarization pattern ${\bf P}(\hat{\bf R})$ similarly can be viewed as a hologram of the spin environment of the source atom by virtue of the exchange scattering of the photoelectron by the neighboring atoms. In this paper, we point out that spin-orbit correlations in the photoelectron initial state are responsible for holographic spin-dependent contributions to the intensity hologram $I(\hat{\bf R})$, even if the directly emitted photoelectrons are unpolarized. This remarkable result implies that the emission intensity contains spin information just as the polarization pattern ${\bf P}(\hat{\bf R})$. Although the spin dependent signal in the hologram is rather small ($\sim 5 \% $ in most cases of interest), we show how spin information can be extracted from the intensity hologram, making use of the point symmetry of the environment of the source atom. This way of analyzing photoelectron intensity holograms to extract short-range spin information opens up a new avenue for surface magnetism studies.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1997

Thomas-Fermi Description of Incoherent Light Scattering from an Atomic-Trap BEC

We present a Thomas-Fermi treatment of resonant incoherent scattering of low-intensity light by a dilute spatially confined Bose-Einstein condensate. The description gives simple analytical results and allows scattering data from finite-size condensates to be interpreted in terms of the properties of the homogeneous BEC-system. As an example, we show how the energy dispersion of the elementary excitations can be measured from scattering by a finite-size atomic-trap condensate. As a second example, we point out that a near-resonant scattering experiment can observe quasi-particle creation caused by particle annihilation.

cond-mat↗