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We determine the hydrodynamic modes of the superfluid analog of a smectic-A phase in liquid crystals, i.e., a state in which both gauge invariance and translational invariance along a single direction are spontaneously broken. Such a superfluid smectic provides an idealized description of the incommensurate supersolid state realized in Bose-Einstein condensates with strong dipolar interactions as well as of the stripe phase in Bose gases with spin-orbit coupling. We show that the presence of a finite normal fluid density in the ground state of these systems gives rise to a well-defined second-sound type mode even at zero temperature. It replaces the diffusive permeation mode of a normal smectic phase and is directly connected with the classic description of supersolids by Andreev and Lifshitz in terms of a propagating defect mode. An analytic expression is derived for the two sound velocities that appear in the longitudinal excitation spectrum. It only depends on the low-energy parameters associated with the two independent broken symmetries, which are the effective layer compression modulus and the superfluid fraction., 20 pages

A gas junction In superconductors, electrons form a macroscopic wave function that has a definite phase. If two superconductors with different wave function phases are placed in contact with each other through an insulating link, a current will flow through this so-called Josephson's junction without any external voltage. Luick et al. and Kwon et al. observed an analogous phenomenon in a setup that involved two reservoirs of superfluid Fermi gases. Both groups measured the so-called current-phase relation: the dependence of the magnitude of the current on the relative phase. By tuning an external magnetic field, they were able to study how the interactions between fermions affected the nature of the superfluid state. Science , this issue p. 89 , p. 84

We develop a microscopic model to describe the Josephson dynamics between two superfluid reservoirs of ultracold fermionic atoms which accounts for the dependence of the critical current on both the barrier height and the interaction strength along the crossover from BCS to BEC. Building on a previous study [F. Meier & W. Zwerger, Phys. Rev. A, 64 033610 (2001)] of weakly-interacting bosons, we derive analytic results for the Josephson critical current at zero temperature for homogeneous and trapped systems at arbitrary coupling. The critical current exhibits a maximum near the unitarity limit which arises from the competition between the increasing condensate fraction and a decrease of the chemical potential along the evolution from the BCS to the BEC limit. Our results agree quantitatively with numerical simulations and recent experimental data., 8 pages, 5 figures

An open resonator fabricated in a two-dimensional electron gas is used to explore the transition from strongly invasive scanning gate microscopy to the perturbative regime of weak tip-induced potentials. With the help of numerical simulations that faithfully reproduce the main experimental findings, we quantify the extent of the perturbative regime in which the tip-induced conductance change is unambiguously determined by properties of the unperturbed system. The correspondence between the experimental and numerical results is established by analyzing the characteristic length scale and the amplitude modulation of the conductance change. In the perturbative regime, the former is shown to assume a disorder-dependent maximum value, while the latter linearly increases with the strength of a weak tip potential., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

We calculate the spectrum of three-body Efimov bound states near a Feshbach resonance within a model which accounts both for the finite range of interactions and the presence of background scattering. The latter may be due to direct interactions in an open channel or a second overlapping Feshbach resonance. It is found that background scattering gives rise to substantial changes in the trimer spectrum as a function of the detuning away from a Feshbach resonance, in particular in the regime where the background channel supports Efimov states on its own. Compared to the situation with negligible background scattering, the regime where van der Waals universality applies is shifted to larger values of the resonance strength if the background scattering length is positive. For negative background scattering lengths, in turn, van der Waals universality extends to even small values of the resonance strength parameter, consistent with experimental results on Efimov states in $^{39}$K. Within a simple model, we show that short-range three-body forces do not affect van der Waals universality significantly. Repulsive three-body forces may, however, explain the observed variation between around $-8$ and $-10$ of the ratio between the scattering length where the first Efimov trimer appears and the van der Waals length., Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures; final version as published

We discuss the phase diagram and the universal scaling functions of attractive Fermi gases at finite imbalance. The existence of a quantum multicritical point for the unitary gas at vanishing chemical potential $\mu$ and effective magnetic field $h$, first discussed by Nikoli\'{c} and Sachdev, gives rise to three different phase diagrams, depending on whether the inverse scattering length $1/a$ is negative, positive or zero. Within a Luttinger-Ward formalism, the phase diagram and pressure of the unitary gas is calculated as a function of the dimensionless scaling variables $T/\mu$ and $h/\mu$. The results indicate that beyond the Clogston-Chandrasekhar limit at $(h/\mu)_c\simeq 1.09$, the unitary gas exhibits an inhomogeneous superfluid phase with FFLO order that can reach critical temperatures near unitarity of $\simeq 0.03\, T_F$., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, JETP style, text overlap with arXiv:1608.00457, v2: published version

We discuss Bragg scattering on both Bose and Fermi gases with strong short-range interactions in the deep inelastic regime of large wave vector transfer q, where the dynamic structure factor is dominated by a resonance near the free-particle energy ℏω=ϵq=ℏ2q2/2m. Using a systematic short-distance expansion, the structure factor at high momentum is shown to exhibit a nontrivial dependence on frequency characterized by two separate scaling regimes. First, for frequencies that differ from the single-particle energy by terms of order O(q) (i.e., small deviations compared to the single-particle energy), the dynamic structure factor is described by the impulse approximation of Hohenberg and Platzman. Second, deviations of order O(q2) (i.e., of the same order or larger than the single-particle energy) are described by the operator product expansion, with a universal crossover connecting both regimes. The scaling is consistent with the leading asymptotics for a number of sum rules in the large momentum limit. Furthermore, we derive an exact expression for the shift and width of the single-particle peak at large momentum due to interactions, thus extending a result by Beliaev [J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 7, 299 (1958)] for the low-density Bose gas to arbitrary values of the scattering length a. The shift exhibits a maximum around qa≃1, which is connected with a maximum in the static structure factor due to strong short-range correlations. For Bose gases with moderate interaction strengths, the theoretically predicted shift is consistent with the value observed by Papp et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 135301 (2008)]. Finally, we develop a diagrammatic theory for the dynamic structure factor which accounts for the correlations beyond Bogoliubov theory. It covers the full range of momenta and frequencies and provides an explicit example for the emergence of asymptotic scaling at large momentum., Physical Review X, 7 (1), ISSN:2160-3308

We discuss the quantum phase transition from a liquid to a gaseous ground state in a Bose fluid with increasing strength of the zero point motion. It is shown that in the zero pressure limit, the two different ground states are separated by a quantum tricritical point whose position is determined by a vanishing two-body scattering length. In the presence of a finite three-body scattering amplitude, the superfluid gas at this point exhibits sound modes whose velocity scales linearly with density while the compressibility diverges $\sim p^{-1/3}$ in the limit of vanishing pressure $p$. In the liquid regime of negative scattering lengths, it is shown that $N$-body bound states exist up to arbitrary $N$, consistent with a theorem by Seiringer. The asymptotic scaling $a_{-}(N)\sim N^{-1/2}$ of the scattering lengths where they appear from the continuum is determined from a finite size scaling analysis in the vicinity of the quantum tricritical point. This also provides a qualitative understanding of numerical results for the quantum unbinding of small clusters., Comment: Final version as published

Increasing the spin imbalance in superconductors can spatially modulate the gap by forming Cooper pairs with finite momentum. For large imbalances compared to the Fermi energy, the inhomogeneous FFLO superconductor ultimately becomes a normal metal. There is mounting experimental evidence for this scenario in 2D organic superconductors in large in-plane magnetic fields; this is complemented by ongoing efforts to realize this scenario in coupled tubes of atomic Fermi gases with spin imbalance. Yet, a theory for the phase transition from a metal to an FFLO superconductor has not been developed so far and the universality class has remained unknown. Here we propose and analyze a spin imbalance driven quantum critical point between a 2D metal and an FFLO phase in anisotropic electron systems. We derive the effective action for electrons and bosonic FFLO pairs at this quantum phase transition. Using this action, we predict non-Fermi liquid behavior and the absence of quasi-particles at a discrete set of hot spots on the Fermi surfaces. This results in strange power-laws in thermodynamics and response functions, which are testable with existing experimental set-ups on 2D organic superconductors and may also serve as signatures of the elusive FFLO phase itself. The proposed universality class is distinct from previously known quantum critical metals and, because its critical fluctuations appear already in the pairing channel, a promising candidate for naked metallic quantum criticality over extended temperature ranges., Comment: 3+1 figures

This article reviews recent experimental and theoretical progress on many-body phenomena in dilute, ultracold gases. Its focus are effects beyond standard weak-coupling descriptions, like the Mott-Hubbard-transition in optical lattices, strongly interacting gases in one and two dimensions or lowest Landau level physics in quasi two-dimensional gases in fast rotation. Strong correlations in fermionic gases are discussed in optical lattices or near Feshbach resonances in the BCS-BEC crossover., revised version, accepted for publication in Rev. Mod. Phys

We provide an exact solution for the interplay between Bose-Einstein condensation and the Dicke-Hepp-Lieb self-organization transition of an ideal Bose gas trapped inside a single-mode optical cavity and subject to a transverse laser drive. Based on an effective action approach, we determine the full phase diagram at arbitrary temperature, which features a bi-critical point where the transitions cross. We calculate the dynamically generated band structure of the atoms and the associated supression of the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation in the phase with a spontaneous periodic density modulation. Moreover, we determine the evolution of the polariton spectrum due to the coupling of the cavity photons and the atomic field near the self-organization transition, which is quite different above or below the Bose-Einstein condensation temperature. At low temperatures, the critical value of the Dicke-Hepp-Lieb transition decreases with temperature and thus thermal fluctuations can enhance the tendency to a periodic arrangement of the atoms., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures

We study the conductance of a single particle on a ring subject to an arbitrary dc electric field, which is generated by a linearly in time increasing magnetic flux. The full quantum mechanical time development is calculated numerically by splitting the dynamics into independent consecutive Zener tunneling transitions and free motion on the ring. The Zener transitions occur near the avoided crossings of the bandstructure which arises from the adiabatic eigenstates as a function of flux in the presence of a static scattering potential. To account for the necessary dissipation the particle is coupled to an appropriate oscillator bath which is adjusted to give a strictly linear current-voltage characteristic for arbitrary voltage and temperature in the absence of scattering. Taking a single δ-function scatterer we find that the dissipative coupling eliminates the localization in energy space found previously and leads to a well defined resistive steady state. The scattering introduces reproducible fluctuations around the average Ohmic behavior which are caused by coherent backscattering. Their magnitude depends on the strength of the scattering potential and decays slowly for large voltages. The associated correlation energy is determined by the uncertainty of the eigenstates due to the dissipative bath coupling. Thermal averaging leads to a decrease of the conductance fluctuations proportional to T−1.

Starting from a model of free Fermions in two dimensions with an arbitrary strong effective interaction, we derive a Ginzburg-Landau theory describing the crossover from BCS-superconductivity to Bose-condensation. We find a smooth crossover from the standard BCS-limit to a Gross-Pitaevski type equation for the order parameter in a Bose superfluid. The mean field transition temperature exhibits a maximum at a coupling strength, where the behaviour crosses over from BCS to Bose like with corres- ponding values of 2A,/Tc = 5 which are characteristic for high Tc superconductors.

We discuss the suppression of Coulomb effects in the low temperature conductanceg(T) of small tunnel junctions with increasing dissipation or bare conductanceg. The conductance is expressed in terms of the spin correlation fuction of a classical one dimensionalXY-model with ferromagnetic nearest neighbor plus inverse square interaction. It is shown that at low temperatures the conductance vanishes asymptotically likeT2 instead of exponentially. A Coulomb gap in the sense of a thermally activated contribution tog(T) is present only for bare conductances smaller thangc∼1. A simple model for the spin correlation functions is compared with experiments.

We study the diffusion of a quantum Brownian particle in a one-dimensional periodic potential with substitutional disorder. The particle is coupled to a dissipative environment, which induces a frictional force proportional to the velocity. The dynamics for arbitrary temperature is studied by using Feynman's influence-functional theory. We calculate the mobility to lowest order in the disorder and strength of the periodic potential. It is shown that for weak dissipation the linear mobility, which vanishes atT=0 due to localization effects, may exhibit a maximum and a subsequent minimum with increasing temperature. The relation to the diffusion of heavy particles in metals or doped semiconductors is briefly discussed.

We discuss the phase diagram of regular networks of quantum mechanical Josephson junctions in one and two dimensions for different choices of the Coulomb interaction between pairs. In a particular case this is equivalent to a quantum interface with lateral tunneling along the boundary. Using a functional integral approach the partition function is transformed into that of classical roughening or Coulomb gas problems. It is shown, in particular, that the structure of the phase diagram depends crucially on the form of the Coulomb interaction and that with dissipative interactions both globally and locally superconducting phases are possible. The relation of our results to recent experiments on granular superconducting films and ideal Josephson junction arrays is discussed briefly.

We discuss the effective interactions between two localized perturbations in one-dimensional (1D) quantum liquids. For non-interacting fermions, the interactions exhibit Friedel oscillations, giving rise to a RKKY-type interaction familiar from impurity spins in metals. In the interacting case, at low energies, a Luttinger liquid description applies. In the case of repulsive fermions, the Friedel oscillations of the interacting system are replaced, at long distances, by a universal Casimir-type interaction which depends only on the sound velocity and decays inversely with the separation. The Casimir-type interaction between localized perturbations embedded in a fermionic environment gives rise to a long range coupling between quantum dots in ultracold Fermi gases, opening a novel alternative to couple qubits with neutral atoms. We also briefly discuss the case of bosonic quantum liquids in which the interaction between weak impurities turns out to be short ranged, decaying exponentially on the scale of the healing length., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev. A

Un calcul de la theorie exacte de la diffusion, pour la densite des electrons autour des impuretes localisees dans les metaux volumiques pour un courant de transport quelconque, est effectue dans le cadre de l'approximation du gaz de Fermi non interactif. Au premier ordre dans le courant de transport, on recouvre le dipole de la resistivite residuelle de Landauer, plus des oscillations de Friedel supplementaires. Les calculs numeriques de la densite pour des courants arbitraires sont effectues pour les cas uni-, bi-, et tri-dimensionnels

Granular superconductors are strongly inhomogeneous systems consisting of locally superconducting grains in an insulating matrix. In these lectures we will discuss the consequences of the Coulomb interaction on the mesoscopic scale of grains and of dissipative effects in these systems. Throughout we assume that the granular system may be modelled as a network of tunnel junctions which are normal junctions above and Josephson junctions below the transition to local superconductivity at T c l . The lectures are organized as follows: section 2 starts with a discussion of tunneling in non-superconducting granular systems and in particular the behavior of the conductance due to the effects of finite size and charging in small grains. In section 3 we discuss the appearance of local superconductivity within the grains and the Josephson coupling between them. It is shown that both thermal fluctuations and Coulomb effects may lead to a destruction of global superconductivity. The influence of dissipative effects associated with normal electron tunneling is treated in section 4 for single junctions. In section 5 we determine the phase diagram at zero temperature of one and two-dimensional (2 D) networks of quantum Josephson junctions including dissipation. Finally in section 6 we discuss corresponding experiments on artificially created Josephson junction arrays and very thin granular films.

It is shown that the dephasing which suppresses the weak localization correction to the conductivity has the same physical origin than pair-breaking in superconductors and thus-following de Gennes-may be expressed in terms of the correlation function of the operator for time reversal.