APS Logo

Do Fermions mediate pairing of bosons?

ORAL · Invited

Abstract

Recent research on Bose-Fermi mixtures suggests an intriguing link between two distinct quantum phenomena: the RKKY (Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida) mechanism in magnetism and Efimov physics in nuclear physics. The former explains long-range correlations of localized impurities in a material, while the latter describes universal states of three particles with resonant, pairwise interactions.

We perform experiments on a degenerate mixture of heavy bosons (Cs) embedded in light fermions (Li) with tunable interspecies interactions. Weak interactions between Cs atoms mediated by Li atoms show consistency with the RKKY mechanism, while Efimov trimers manifest in the strong coupling regime. How are the 2 physics mingled in the crossover regime? We present measurements on the Bose-Fermi mixture across the weak- to strong-coupling regime, which revealed more surprises, including the collapsing and revival of phonon modes.

Presenters

  • Cheng Chin

    University of Chicago

Authors

  • Cheng Chin

    University of Chicago