Emergent force in a bilayer superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture

TL;DR

This paper explores a bilayer superfluid Bose-Fermi mixture where a transition from p-wave to s-wave pairing occurs, revealing an emergent force at the critical point that can be utilized in quantum thermodynamics.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of an emergent force at the pairing transition in a mixed-dimensional Bose-Fermi system, linking it to thermodynamic potential analysis.

Findings

Transition from p-wave to s-wave pairing depending on layer separation and scattering length.

Emergent force appears at the critical point of pairing transition.

Potential applications in quantum thermodynamics and experimental realization.

Abstract

We investigate a system of two-atomic species in mixed dimensions, in which one species is spread in a three-dimensional space and the other species is confined in two parallel layers. The presence of atoms in 3-dimensions creates an induced potential for the ones confined in layers. Depending on the effective scattering length and the layer separation, the formation of p-wave pairing within the same layer or s-wave pairing between different layers has been suggested. It is shown that these pairs cannot coexist when time-reversal symmetry (TRS) is on, and there appears a transition from p-wave to s-wave as the ratio of the layer separation and the effective scattering length decreases. With the formation of the inter-layer pairing, we find an emergent force to be present at the critical point and show that it can be derived from the thermodynamic potential. This result offers a tool for experimentally realizing such transitions, and can find notable potential in the field of quantum-thermodynamics.