No Arabic abstract
We study the dimer-dimer scattering length $a_4$ for a two-component Fermi mixture in which the different fermions have different masses $mus$ and $mds$. This is made in the framework of the exact field theoretical method. In the large mass ratio domain the equations are simplified enough to lead to an analytical solution. In particular we link $a_4$ to the fermion-dimer scattering length $a_3$ for the same fermions, and obtain the very simple relation $a_4=a_3/2$. The result $a_4 simeq a_3/2$ is actually valid whatever the mass ratio with quite good precision. As a result we find an analytical expression providing $a_4$ with a fairly good precision for any masses. To dominant orders for large mass ratio it agrees with the literature. We show that, in this large mass ratio domain, the dominant processes are the repeated dimer-dimer Born scatterings, considered earlier by Pieri and Strinati. We conclude that their approximation, of retaining only these processes, is a fairly good one whatever the mass ratio.
We consider the problem of obtaining the scattering length for a fermion colliding with a dimer, formed from a fermion identical to the incident one and another different fermion. This is done in the universal regime where the range of interactions is short enough so that the scattering length $a$ for non identical fermions is the only relevant quantity. This is the generalization to fermions with different masses of the problem solved long ago by Skorniakov and Ter-Martirosian for particles with equal masses. We solve this problem analytically in the two limiting cases where the mass of the solitary fermion is very large or very small compared to the mass of the two other identical fermions. This is done both for the value of the scattering length and for the function entering the Skorniakov-Ter-Martirosian integral equation, for which simple explicit expressions are obtained.
We show that, near a Feshbach resonance, a strong p-wave resonance is present at low energy in atom-dimer scattering for $^6$Li-$^{40}$K fermionic mixtures. This resonance is due to a virtual bound state, in the atom-dimer system, which is present at this low energy. When the mass ratio between the two fermionic elements is increased, this virtual bound state goes to a known real bound state which appears when the mass ratio reaches 8.17. This resonance should affect a number of physical properties. These include the equation of state of unbalanced mixtures at very low temperature but also the equation of state of balanced mixtures at moderate or high temperature. The frequency and the damping of collective modes should also provide a convenient way to evidence this resonance. Finally it should be possible to modify the effective mass of one the fermionic species by making use of an optical lattice. This would allow to study the strong dependence of the resonance as a function of the mass ratio of the two fermionic elements.
We use the composite boson (coboson) many-body formalism to tackle scattering lengths for cold fermionic atoms. We show that bound dimers can be taken as elementary entities provided that fermion exchanges between them are treated exactly, as can be done through the coboson formalism. This alternative tool extended to cold atom physics not only makes transparent many-body processes through Shiva diagrams specific to cobosons, but also simplifies calculations. Indeed, the integral equation we derive for the atom-dimer scattering length and solve by restricting the dimer relative motion to the ground state, gives values in remarkable agreement with the exact scattering length values for all fermion mass ratios. This remarkable agreement also holds true for the dimer-dimer scattering length, except for equal fermion masses where our restricted procedure gives a value slightly larger than the accepted one ($0.64a_d$ instead of $0.60a_d$). All this proves that the scattering of a cold-atom dimer with an atom or another dimer is essentially controlled by the dimer relative-motion ground state, a physical result not obvious at first.
Quantum spin ice represents a paradigmatic example on how the physics of frustrated magnets is related to gauge theories. In the present work we address the problem of approximately realizing quantum spin ice in two dimensions with cold atoms in optical lattices. The relevant interactions are obtained by weakly admixing van der Waals interactions between laser admixed Rydberg states to the atomic ground state atoms, exploiting the strong angular dependence of interactions between Rydberg p-states together with the possibility of designing step-like potentials. This allows us to implement Abelian gauge theories in a series of geometries, which could be demonstrated within state of the art atomic Rydberg experiments. We numerically analyze the family of resulting microscopic Hamiltonians and find that they exhibit both classical and quantum order by disorder, the latter yielding a quantum plaquette valence bond solid. We also present strategies to implement Abelian gauge theories using both s- and p-Rydberg states in exotic geometries, e.g. on a 4-8 lattice.
We investigate universal behavior in elastic atom-dimer scattering below the dimer breakup threshold calculating the atom-dimer effective-range function $akcotdelta$. Using the He-He system as a reference, we solve the Schrodinger equation for a family of potentials having different values of the two-body scattering length $a$ and we compare our results to the universal zero-range form deduced by Efimov, $akcotdelta=c_1(ka)+c_2(ka)cot[s_0ln(kappa_*a)+phi(ka)]$, for selected values of the three-body parameter $kappa_*$. Using the parametrization of the universal functions $c_1,c_2,phi$ given in the literature, a good agreement with the universal formula is obtained after introducing a particular type of finite-range corrections. Furthermore, we show that the same parametrization describes a very different system: nucleon-deuteron scattering below the deuteron breakup threshold. Our analysis confirms the universal character of the process, and relates the pole energy in the effective-range function of nucleon-deuteron scattering to the three-body parameter $kappa_*$.