Generalized Mean Field Approach to a Resonant Bose-Fermi Mixture

TL;DR

This paper develops a generalized mean-field theory for a resonant Bose-Fermi mixture, accurately capturing molecular binding energies and analyzing molecule formation dynamics across a Feshbach resonance.

Contribution

It introduces a mean-field framework that correctly accounts for molecular binding energies in Bose-Fermi mixtures with tunable interactions.

Findings

Accurate modeling of molecular binding energies in the two-body limit

Analysis of molecule formation when crossing the Feshbach resonance

A simple Landau-Zener model for molecule creation dynamics

Abstract

We formulate a generalized mean-field theory of a mixture of fermionic and bosonic atoms, in which the fermion-boson interaction can be controlled by a Feshbach resonance. The theory correctly accounts for molecular binding energies of the molecules in the two-body limit, in contrast to the most straightforward mean-field theory. Using this theory, we discuss the equilibrium properties of fermionic molecules created from atom pairs in the gas. We also address the formation of molecules when the magnetic field is ramped across the resonance, and present a simple Landau-Zener result for this process.