Realizing a Kondo-correlated state with ultracold atoms

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new way to realize Kondo physics using ultracold atomic gases, enabling experimental exploration of Kondo phenomena with tunable parameters and potential insights into the Kondo screening cloud.

Contribution

It introduces a method to simulate Kondo physics with ultracold atoms, specifically using Feshbach resonances and trapping potentials to create Kondo correlated states.

Findings

Kondo states can be realized with ${}^{40}$K and ${}^{23}$Na atoms.

Radio frequency spectroscopy can detect Kondo resonances.

Tuning Feshbach resonances and trap frequencies controls Kondo physics.

Abstract

We propose a novel realization of Kondo physics with ultracold atomic gases. It is based on a Fermi sea of two different hyperfine states of one atom species forming bound states with a different species, which is spatially confined in a trapping potential. We show that different situations displaying Kondo physics can be realized when Feshbach resonances between the species are tuned by a magnetic field and the trapping frequency is varied. We illustrate that a mixture of ${}^{40}$K and ${}^{23}$Na atoms can be used to generate a Kondo correlated state and that momentum resolved radio frequency spectroscopy can provide unambiguous signatures of the formation of Kondo resonances at the Fermi energy. We discuss how tools of atomic physics can be used to investigate open questions for Kondo physics, such as the extension of the Kondo screening cloud.