Quantum droplets in a resonant Bose-Fermi mixture

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Foster, Sam, Bleu, Olivier, Levinsen, Jesper, Parish, Meera M.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866914263355883520
author Foster, Sam
Bleu, Olivier
Levinsen, Jesper
Parish, Meera M.
author_facet Foster, Sam
Bleu, Olivier
Levinsen, Jesper
Parish, Meera M.
contents We study the canonical problem of a Fermi gas interacting with a weakly repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate at zero temperature. To explore the quantum phases across the full range of boson-fermion interactions, we construct a versatile variational ansatz that incorporates pair correlations and correctly captures the different polaron limits. Remarkably, we find that self-bound quantum droplets can exist in the strongly interacting regime, preempting the formation of boson-fermion dimers, when the Fermi pressure is balanced by the resonant boson-fermion attraction. This scenario can be achieved in experimentally available Bose-Fermi mixtures for a range of boson-fermion mass ratios in the vicinity of equal masses. We furthermore show that a larger fermion density instead yields phase separation between a Bose-Fermi mixture and excess fermions, as well as behavior reminiscent of a liquid-gas critical point. Our results suggest that first-order quantum phase transitions play a crucial role in the phase diagram of Bose-Fermi mixtures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_12777
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantum droplets in a resonant Bose-Fermi mixture
Foster, Sam
Bleu, Olivier
Levinsen, Jesper
Parish, Meera M.
Quantum Gases
We study the canonical problem of a Fermi gas interacting with a weakly repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate at zero temperature. To explore the quantum phases across the full range of boson-fermion interactions, we construct a versatile variational ansatz that incorporates pair correlations and correctly captures the different polaron limits. Remarkably, we find that self-bound quantum droplets can exist in the strongly interacting regime, preempting the formation of boson-fermion dimers, when the Fermi pressure is balanced by the resonant boson-fermion attraction. This scenario can be achieved in experimentally available Bose-Fermi mixtures for a range of boson-fermion mass ratios in the vicinity of equal masses. We furthermore show that a larger fermion density instead yields phase separation between a Bose-Fermi mixture and excess fermions, as well as behavior reminiscent of a liquid-gas critical point. Our results suggest that first-order quantum phase transitions play a crucial role in the phase diagram of Bose-Fermi mixtures.
title Quantum droplets in a resonant Bose-Fermi mixture
topic Quantum Gases
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.12777