Quantum Triticality of Bosonic Atomic-Molecular Mixtures with Feshbach Coupling

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for a bosonic atomic-molecular mixture with Feshbach coupling, revealing a complex phase diagram with tricritical points, and analyzes quantum fluctuations and correlation functions across phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a functional integral approach to analyze phase stability and quantum effects in atomic-molecular mixtures with Feshbach coupling, identifying tricritical points and nonmonotonic quantum fluctuations.

Findings

Identification of three distinct phases: MSF, AMSF, and PS.

Discovery of up to two tricritical points in the phase diagram.

Quantum fluctuations and depletion vary nonmonotonically with coupling strength.

Abstract

We develop a functional integral formulation for a homogeneous bosonic atomic-molecular mixture with Feshbach coupling in three-spatial dimensions. Taking phase stability into account, we establish a rich ground-state phase diagram, which features three regions: molecular superfluid (MSF), atomic-molecular superfluid (AMSF), and phase separation (PS). The system can accommodate up to two tricritical points where the three regions meet, with one tricritical point being intrinsic and the other being conditional. Strikingly, we show that the sound velocity vanishes as the AMSF phase touches on the border of phase separation lines. We find that quantum fluctuations correction to the ground-state energy and quantum depletion of the condensates vary nonmonotonically with Feshbach coupling strength as well as molecular percentage. Correlation functions such as pairing amplitudes, density structure factor and spin density structure factor show characteristic behaviors when the system crosses phase transitions. Our work paves the way for future advancement toward understanding salient physics of atom-molecular mixtures.