Collective modes of spin-orbit coupled Fermi gases in the repulsive regime

TL;DR

This paper explores the collective excitations in spin-orbit coupled Fermi gases with repulsive interactions, revealing unique correlated spin and density modes and proposing experimental detection methods.

Contribution

It classifies and analyzes collective modes in spin-orbit coupled Fermi gases using RPA, highlighting differences from ordinary Fermi liquids and topological surface states.

Findings

Identification of collective modes with unique symmetry properties

Analysis of particle-hole continuum and damping effects

Comparison with ordinary Fermi liquids and topological insulator surfaces

Abstract

We investigate the collective modes in the spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas with repulsive s-wave interaction. The interplay between spin-orbit coupling and atom-atom interactions plays the crucial role in the collective behaviors of Fermi gas. In contrast with ordinary Fermi liquid, spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas has strongly correlated spin and density excitations. Within the scheme of random phase approximation, we classify collective modes based on the symmetry group and determine their properties via the poles of corresponding correlation functions. Besides, the particle-hole continuum is obtained, where the imaginary part of these correlation functions become non-vanishing. We make comparisons with collective excitations in the ordinary Fermi liquid without spin-orbit coupling and in a helical liquid, i.e., surface states of a three dimensional topological insulator. We also propose an experimental protocol for detecting these collective modes and discuss corresponding experimental signatures in the ultracold Fermi gases experiment.