Supersolid versus Phase Separation in Atomic Bose-Fermi Mixture

TL;DR

This paper investigates a two-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixture in an optical lattice, revealing a supersolid phase with simultaneous crystalline and phase order, and compares it to phase separation, providing a phase diagram and experimental proposal.

Contribution

It identifies conditions for supersolid formation in Bose-Fermi mixtures and maps the phase diagram, highlighting the competition with phase separation.

Findings

Supersolid phase characterized by crystalline and phase order.

Phase diagram showing regions of supersolid and phase separation.

Proposed experiment to observe the supersolid phase.

Abstract

We show that a two-dimensional atomic mixture of Bosons and Fermions cooled into their quantum degenerate states and subject to an optical lattice develops a supersolid phase characterized by the simultaneous presence of a non-trivial crystalline order and phase order. This transition is in competition with a phase separated ground state. We determine the phase diagram of the system and propose an experiment allowing for the observation of the supersolid phase.