Kinetics of the Phase Separation Transition in Cold-Atom Boson-Fermion Mixtures

TL;DR

This paper investigates the quantum-driven phase separation kinetics in cold-atom boson-fermion mixtures, deriving nucleation rates and analyzing dissipation effects near the transition point.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic model to derive an effective action for critical nuclei and explores quantum nucleation regimes in cold-atom mixtures.

Findings

Derived an asymptotic expression for nucleation rate.

Identified regimes where quantum nucleation is observable.

Analyzed dissipation effects near the phase transition.

Abstract

We study the kinetics of the first order phase separation transition in boson-fermion cold-atom mixtures. At sufficiently low temperatures such a transition is driven by quantum fluctuations responsible for the formation of critical nuclei of a stable phase. Based on a microscopic description of interacting boson-fermion mixtures we derive an effective action for the critical droplet and obtain an asymptotic expression for the nucleation rate in the vicinity of the phase transition and near the spinodal instability of the mixed phase. We also discuss effects of dissipation which play a dominant role close to the transition point, and identify the regimes where quantum nucleation can be experimentally observed in cold-atom systems.