Textures and non-Abelian vortices in atomic d-wave paired Fermi condensates

TL;DR

This paper explores the fundamental properties of superfluids with d-wave pairing in atomic Fermi gases, focusing on textures, stability of non-Abelian vortices, and experimental creation methods.

Contribution

It develops a symmetry-constrained Ginzburg-Landau theory for d-wave superfluids and proposes a method to experimentally realize non-Abelian 1/3-vortices.

Findings

Identification of OP textures in the cyclic phase

Stability conditions for non-Abelian 1/3-vortices

Proposal for optical creation of 1/3-vortices

Abstract

We report on fundamental properties of superfluids with d-wave pairing symmetry. We consider neutral atomic Fermi gases in a harmonic trap, the pairing being produced by a Feshbach resonance via a d-wave interaction channel. A Ginzburg-Landau (GL) functional is constructed which is symmetry constrained for five component order parameters (OP). We find OP textures in the cyclic phase and stability conditions for a non-Abelian fractional 1/3-vortex under rotation. It is proposed how to create the intriguing 1/3-vortex experimentally in atomic gases via optical means.