Theory for p-Wave Feshbach Molecules

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding p-wave Feshbach molecules in spin-polarized potassium-40, aligning well with experiments and predicting observable quantum phenomena in superfluid states.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical analysis of p-wave Feshbach molecules, including their properties and quantum phase transition signatures, which is novel in the context of spin-polarized ultracold gases.

Findings

Large probability of molecules being in the closed channel

Agreement with recent experimental data

Prediction of Rabi oscillations in superfluid state

Abstract

We determine the physical properties of \emph{p}-wave Feshbach molecules in doubly spin-polarized $^{40}$K and find excellent agreement with recent experiments. We show that these molecules have a large probability $Z$ to be in the closed channel or bare molecular state responsible for the Feshbach resonance. In the superfluid state this allows for observation of Rabi oscillations between the molecular and atomic components of the Bose-Einstein condensed pairs, which contains a characteristic signature of the quantum phase transition that occurs as a function of applied magnetic field.