Second sound and the superfluid fraction in a Fermi gas with resonant interactions

Scale Invariance of a Spherical Unitary Fermi Gas

A unitary Fermi gas in an isotropic harmonic trap is predicted to show scale and conformal symmetry that have important consequences in its thermodynamic and dynamical properties. By experimentally realizing a unitary Fermi gas in an isotropic harmonic trap, we demonstrate its universal expansion dynamics along each direction and at different temperatures. We show that as a consequence of SO(2,1) symmetry, the measured release energy is equal to that of the trapping energy. We further observe the breathing mode with an oscillation frequency twice the trapping frequency and a small damping rate, providing the evidence of SO(2,1) symmetry. In addition, away from resonance when scale invariance is broken, we determine the effective exponent γ that relates the chemical potential and average density along the BEC-BCS crossover, which qualitatively agrees with the mean field predictions. This Letter opens the possibility of studying nonequilibrium dynamics in a conformal invariant system in the future.

Mechanism for sound dissipation in a two-dimensional degenerate Fermi gas

We numerically study the transport properties of a two-dimensional Fermi gas in a weakly and strongly interacting regimes, in the range of temperatures close to the transition to a superfluid phase. For that we excite sound waves in a fermionic mixture by using the phase imprinting technique, follow their evolution, and finally determine both their speed and attenuation. Our formalism, originated from a density-functional theory, incorporates thermal fluctuations via the grand canonical ensemble description and with the help of Metropolis algoritm. From numerical simulations we extract temperature dependence of the sound velocity and diffusivity as well as the dependence on the interaction strength. We emphasize the role of virtual vortex-antivortex pairs creation in the process of sound dissipation.

Irreversible entropy transport enhanced by fermionic superfluidity

The nature of particle and entropy flow between two superfluids is often understood in terms of reversible flow carried by an entropy-free, macroscopic wavefunction. While this wavefunction is responsible for many intriguing properties of superfluids and superconductors, its interplay with excitations in non-equilibrium situations is less understood. Here we observe large concurrent flows of both particles and entropy through a ballistic channel connecting two strongly interacting fermionic superfluids. Both currents respond nonlinearly to chemical potential and temperature biases. We find that the entropy transported per particle is much larger than the prediction of superfluid hydrodynamics in the linear regime and largely independent of changes in the channel's geometry. By contrast, the timescales of advective and diffusive entropy transport vary significantly with the channel geometry. In our setting, superfluidity counterintuitively increases the speed of entropy transport. Moreover, we develop a phenomenological model describing the nonlinear dynamics within the framework of generalized gradient dynamics. Our approach for measuring entropy currents may help elucidate mechanisms of heat transfer in superfluids and superconducting devices.

Thermography of the superfluid transition in a strongly interacting Fermi gas

Heat transport can serve as a fingerprint identifying different states of matter. In a normal liquid, a hotspot diffuses, whereas in a superfluid, heat propagates as a wave called "second sound." Direct imaging of heat transport is challenging, and one usually resorts to detecting secondary effects. In this study, we establish thermography of a strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas, whose radio-frequency spectrum provides spatially resolved thermometry with subnanokelvin resolution. The superfluid phase transition was directly observed as the sudden change from thermal diffusion to second-sound propagation and is accompanied by a peak in the second-sound diffusivity. This method yields the full heat and density response of the strongly interacting Fermi gas and therefore all defining properties of Landau's two-fluid hydrodynamics.

Ubiquitination and deubiquitination: Implications on cancer therapy

The ubiquitin proteasomal system (UPS) represents a highly regulated protein degradation pathway essential for maintaining cellular homeostasis. This system plays a critical role in several cellular processes, which include DNA damage repair, cell cycle checkpoint control, and immune response regulation. Recently, the UPS has emerged as a promising target for cancer therapeutics due to its involvement in oncogenesis and tumor progression. Here we aim to summarize the key aspects of the UPS and its significance in cancer therapeutics. We begin by elucidating the fundamental components of the UPS, highlighting the role of ubiquitin, E1-E3 ligases, and the proteasome in protein degradation. Furthermore, we discuss the intricate process of ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation, emphasizing the specificity and selectivity achieved through various signaling pathways. The dysregulation of the UPS has been implicated in cancer development and progression. Aberrant ubiquitin-mediated degradation of key regulatory proteins, such as tumor suppressors and oncoproteins, can lead to uncontrolled cell proliferation, evasion of apoptosis, and metastasis. We outline the pivotal role of the UPS in modulating crucial oncogenic pathways, including the regulation of cyclins, transcription factors, Replication stress components and DNA damage response. The increasing recognition of the UPS as a target for cancer therapeutics has spurred the development of small molecules, peptides, and proteasome inhibitors with the potential to restore cellular balance and disrupt tumor growth. We provide an overview of current therapeutic strategies aimed at exploiting the UPS, including the use of proteasome inhibitors, deubiquitinating enzyme inhibitors, and novel E3 ligase modulators. We further discuss novel emerging strategies for the development of next-generation drugs that target proteasome inhibitors. Exploiting the UPS for cancer therapeutics offers promising avenues for developing innovative and effective treatment strategies, providing hope for improved patient outcomes in the fight against cancer.

Superfluid Fraction in an Interacting Spatially Modulated Bose-Einstein Condensate

At zero temperature, a Galilean-invariant Bose fluid is expected to be fully superfluid. Here we investigate theoretically and experimentally the quenching of the superfluid density of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate due to the breaking of translational (and thus Galilean) invariance by an external 1D periodic potential. Both Leggett's bound fixed by the knowledge of the total density and the anisotropy of the sound velocity provide a consistent determination of the superfluid fraction. The use of a large-period lattice emphasizes the important role of two-body interactions on superfluidity.

First and Second Sound in a Compressible 3D Bose Fluid

The two-fluid model is fundamental for the description of superfluidity. In the nearly incompressible liquid regime, it successfully describes first and second sound, corresponding, respectively, to density and entropy waves, in both liquid helium and unitary Fermi gases. Here, we study the two sounds in the opposite regime of a highly compressible fluid, using an ultracold ^{39}K Bose gas in a three-dimensional box trap. We excite the longest-wavelength mode of our homogeneous gas, and observe two distinct resonant oscillations below the critical temperature, of which only one persists above it. In a microscopic mode-structure analysis, we find agreement with the hydrodynamic theory, where first and second sound involve density oscillations dominated by, respectively, thermal and condensed atoms. Varying the interaction strength, we explore the crossover from hydrodynamic to collisionless behavior in a normal gas.

Second sound attenuation near quantum criticality

Second sound attenuation, a distinctive dissipative hydrodynamic phenomenon in a superfluid, is crucial for understanding superfluidity and elucidating critical phenomena. Here, we report the observation of second sound attenuation in a homogeneous Fermi gas of lithium-6 atoms at unitarity by performing Bragg spectroscopy with high energy resolution in the long-wavelength limit. We successfully obtained the temperature dependence of second sound diffusivity [Formula: see text] and thermal conductivity κ. Furthermore, we observed a sudden rise-a precursor of critical divergence-in both [Formula: see text] and κ at a temperature of about 0.95 superfluid transition temperature [Formula: see text]. This suggests that the unitary Fermi gas has a much larger critical region than does liquid helium. Our results pave the way for determining the universal critical scaling functions near quantum criticality.

Second sound in the crossover from the Bose-Einstein condensate to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid

Second sound is an entropy wave which propagates in the superfluid component of a quantum liquid. Because it is an entropy wave, it probes the thermodynamic properties of the quantum liquid. Here, we study second sound propagation for a large range of interaction strengths within the crossover between a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid, extending previous work at unitarity. In particular, we investigate the strongly-interacting regime where currently theoretical predictions only exist in terms of an interpolation in the crossover. Working with a quantum gas of ultracold fermionic 6Li atoms with tunable interactions, we show that the second sound speed varies only slightly in the crossover regime. By varying the excitation procedure, we gain deeper insight on sound propagation. We compare our measurement results with classical-field simulations, which help with the interpretation of our experiments.

Observation of first and second sound in a BKT superfluid

Superfluidity in its various forms has been of interest since the observation of frictionless flow in liquid helium II^1,2. In three spatial dimensions it is conceptually associated with the emergence of long-range order at a critical temperature. One of the hallmarks of superfluidity, as predicted by the two-fluid model^3,4 and observed in both liquid helium⁵ and in ultracold atomic gases^6,7, is the existence of two kinds of sound excitation-the first and second sound. In two-dimensional systems, thermal fluctuations preclude long-range order^8,9; however, superfluidity nevertheless emerges at a non-zero critical temperature through the infinite-order Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition^10,11, which is associated with a universal jump¹² in the superfluid density without any discontinuities in the thermodynamic properties of the fluid. BKT superfluids are also predicted to support two sounds, but so far this has not been observed experimentally. Here we observe first and second sound in a homogeneous two-dimensional atomic Bose gas, and use the two temperature-dependent sound speeds to determine the superfluid density of the gas^13-16. Our results agree with the predictions of BKT theory, including the prediction of a universal jump in the superfluid density at the critical temperature.

Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase induced by dissipating quasisolitons

We theoretically study the sound propagation in a two-dimensional weakly interacting uniform Bose gas. Using the classical fields approximation we analyze in detail the properties of density waves generated both in a weak and strong perturbation regimes. While in the former case density excitations can be described in terms of hydrodynamic or collisionless sound, the strong disturbance of the system results in a qualitatively different response. We identify observed structures as quasisolitons and uncover their internal complexity for strong perturbation case. For this regime quasisolitons break into vortex pairs as time progresses, eventually reaching an equilibrium state. We find this state, characterized by only fluctuating in time averaged number of pairs of opposite charge vortices and by appearance of a quasi-long-range order, as the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase.

Tunneling Transport of Unitary Fermions across the Superfluid Transition

We investigate the transport of a Fermi gas with unitarity-limited interactions across the superfluid phase transition, probing its response to a direct current (dc) drive through a tunnel junction. As the superfluid critical temperature is crossed from below, we observe the evolution from a highly nonlinear to an Ohmic conduction characteristic, associated with the critical breakdown of the Josephson dc current induced by pair condensate depletion. Moreover, we reveal a large and dominant anomalous contribution to resistive currents, which reaches its maximum at the lowest attained temperature, fostered by the tunnel coupling between the condensate and phononic Bogoliubov-Anderson excitations. Increasing the temperature, while the zeroing of supercurrents marks the transition to the normal phase, the conductance drops considerably but remains much larger than that of a normal, uncorrelated Fermi gas tunneling through the same junction. We attribute such enhanced transport to incoherent tunneling of sound modes, which remain weakly damped in the collisional hydrodynamic fluid of unpaired fermions at unitarity.

Universal sound diffusion in a strongly interacting Fermi gas

Transport of strongly interacting fermions is crucial for the properties of modern materials, nuclear fission, the merging of neutron stars, and the expansion of the early Universe. Here, we observe a universal quantum limit of diffusivity in a homogeneous, strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas by studying sound propagation and its attenuation through the coupled transport of momentum and heat. In the normal state, the sound diffusivity D monotonically decreases upon lowering the temperature, in contrast to the diverging behavior of weakly interacting Fermi liquids. Below the superfluid transition temperature, D attains a universal value set by the ratio of Planck's constant and the particle mass. Our findings inform theories of fermion transport, with relevance for hydrodynamic flow of electrons, neutrons, and quarks.

Sound Propagation and Quantum-Limited Damping in a Two-Dimensional Fermi Gas

Strongly interacting two-dimensional Fermi systems are one of the great remaining challenges in many-body physics due to the interplay of strong local correlations and enhanced long-range fluctuations. Here, we probe the thermodynamic and transport properties of a 2D Fermi gas across the BEC-BCS crossover by studying the propagation and damping of sound modes. We excite particle currents by imprinting a phase step onto homogeneous Fermi gases trapped in a box potential and extract the speed of sound from the frequency of the resulting density oscillations. We measure the speed of sound across the BEC-BCS crossover and compare the resulting dynamic measurement of the equation of state both to a static measurement based on recording density profiles and to quantum Monte Carlo calculations and find reasonable agreement between all three. We also measure the damping of the sound mode, which is determined by the shear and bulk viscosities as well as the thermal conductivity of the gas. We find that the damping is minimal in the strongly interacting regime and the diffusivity approaches the universal quantum bound ℏ/m of a perfect fluid.

High-Frequency Sound in a Unitary Fermi Gas

We present an experimental and theoretical study of the phonon mode in a unitary Fermi gas. Using two-photon Bragg spectroscopy, we measure excitation spectra at a momentum of approximately half the Fermi momentum, both above and below the superfluid critical temperature T_{c}. Below T_{c}, the dominant excitation is the Bogoliubov-Anderson (BA) phonon mode, driven by gradients in the phase of the superfluid order parameter. The temperature dependence of the BA phonon is consistent with a theoretical model based on the quasiparticle random phase approximation in which the dominant damping mechanism is via collisions with thermally excited quasiparticles. As the temperature is increased above T_{c}, the phonon evolves into a strongly damped collisional mode, accompanied by an abrupt increase in spectral width. Our study reveals strong similarities between sound propagation in the unitary Fermi gas and bosonic liquid helium.

Beyond Mean-Field Corrections to the Quasiparticle Spectrum of Superfluid Fermi Gases

We investigate the fermionic quasiparticle branch of superfluid Fermi gases in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover and calculate the quasiparticle lifetime and energy shift due to its coupling with the collective mode. The only close-to-resonance process that low-energy quasiparticles can undergo at zero temperature is the emission of a bosonic excitation from the phononic branch. Close to the minimum of the branch we find that the quasiparticles remain undamped, allowing us to compute corrections to experimentally relevant quantities such as the energy gap, location of the minimum, effective mass, and Landau critical velocity.

Topological Effects of a Vorticity Filament on the Coherent Backscattering Cone

In this Letter, we report on the effects of a vorticity filament on the coherent backscattering cone. Using ultrasonic waves in a strongly reverberating cavity, we experimentally show that the discrete number of loops of acoustic paths around a pointlike vortex located at the center of the cavity drives the cancellation and the potential rebirth of the coherent backscattering enhancement. The vorticity filament behaves, then, as a topological anomaly for wave propagation that provides some new insight between reciprocity and weak localization.

Excitation of coherent second sound waves in a dense magnon gas

Second sound is a quantum mechanical effect manifesting itself as a wave-like (in contrast with diffusion) heat transfer, or energy propagation, in a gas of quasi-particles. So far, this phenomenon has been observed only in an equilibrium gas of phonons existing in liquid/solid helium, or in dielectric crystals (Bi, NaF) at low temperatures. Here, we report observation of a room-temperature magnonic second sound, or a wave-like transport of both energy and spin angular momentum, in a quasi-equilibrium gas of magnons undergoing Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in a ferrite film. Due to the contact of the magnon gas with pumping photons and phonons, dispersion of the magnonic second sound differ qualitatively from the phononic case, as there is no diffusion regime, and the second sound velocity remains finite at low wavenumbers. Formation of BEC in the gas of magnons modifies the second sound properties by creating an additional channel of energy relaxation.

A review of modeling interacting transient phenomena with non-equilibrium Green functions

As experimental probes have matured to observe ultrafast transient and high frequency responses of materials and devices, so to have the theoretical methods to numerically and analytically simulate time- and frequency-resolved transport. In this review article, we discuss recent progress in the development of the time-dependent and frequency-dependent non-equilibrium Green function (NEGF) technique. We begin with an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of the underlying Kadanoff-Baym equations and derive the fundamental NEGF equations in the time and frequency domains. We discuss how these methods have been applied to a variety of condensed matter systems such as molecular electronics, nanoscale transistors, and superconductors. In addition, we survey the application of NEGF in fields beyond condensed matter, where it has been used to study thermalization in ultra-cold atoms and to understand leptogenesis in the early universe. Throughout, we pay special attention to the challenges of incorporating contacts and interactions, as the NEGF method is uniquely capable of accounting for such features.

Collisionless Sound in a Uniform Two-Dimensional Bose Gas

Using linear response theory within the random phase approximation, we investigate the propagation of sound in a uniform two dimensional (2D) Bose gas in the collisionless regime. We show that the sudden removal of a static density perturbation produces a damped oscillatory behavior revealing that sound can propagate also in the absence of collisions, due to mean-field interaction effects. We provide explicit results for the sound velocity and damping as a function of temperature, pointing out the crucial role played by Landau damping. We support our predictions by performing numerical simulations with the stochastic (projected) Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The results are consistent with the recent experimental observation of sound in a weakly interacting 2D Bose gas both below and above the superfluid Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.

Sound Propagation in a Uniform Superfluid Two-Dimensional Bose Gas

In superfluid systems several sound modes can be excited, such as, for example, first and second sound in liquid helium. Here, we excite running and standing waves in a uniform two-dimensional Bose gas and we characterize the propagation of sound in both the superfluid and normal regimes. In the superfluid phase, the measured speed of sound is in good agreement with the prediction of a two-fluid hydrodynamic model, and the weak damping is well explained by the scattering with thermal excitations. In the normal phase we observe a stronger damping, which we attribute to a departure from hydrodynamic behavior.

A versatile apparatus for fermionic lithium quantum gases based on an interference-filter laser system

We report on the design and construction of a versatile setup for experiments with ultracold lithium (Li) gases. We discuss our methods to prepare an atomic beam and laser cool it in a Zeeman slower and a subsequent magneto-optical trap, which rely on established methods. We focus on our laser system based on a stable interference-filter-stabilized, linear-extended-cavity diode laser, so far unreported for lithium wavelengths. Moreover, we describe our optical setup to combine various laser frequencies for cooling, manipulation, and detection of Li atoms. We characterize the performance of our system preparing degenerate samples of Li atoms via forced evaporation in a hybrid crossed-beam optical-dipole trap plus confining magnetic trap. Our apparatus allows one to produce quantum gases of N ≈ 10⁵…10⁶ fermionic lithium-6 atoms at nanokelvin temperatures in cycle times below 10 s. Our optical system is particularly suited to study the dynamics of fermionic superfluids in engineered optical potentials.

Breakdown of the Wiedemann-Franz law in a unitary Fermi gas

We report on coupled heat and particle transport measurements through a quantum point contact (QPC) connecting two reservoirs of resonantly interacting, finite temperature Fermi gases. After heating one of them, we observe a particle current flowing from cold to hot. We monitor the temperature evolution of the reservoirs and find that the system evolves after an initial response into a nonequilibrium steady state with finite temperature and chemical potential differences across the QPC. In this state any relaxation in the form of heat and particle currents vanishes. From our measurements we extract the transport coefficients of the QPC and deduce a Lorenz number violating the Wiedemann-Franz law by one order of magnitude, a characteristic persisting even for a wide contact. In contrast, the Seebeck coefficient takes a value close to that expected for a noninteracting Fermi gas and shows a smooth decrease as the atom density close to the QPC is increased beyond the superfluid transition. Our work represents a fermionic analog of the fountain effect observed with superfluid helium and poses challenges for microscopic modeling of the finite temperature dynamics of the unitary Fermi gas.

Hybrid Sound Modes in One-Dimensional Quantum Liquids

We study sound in a single-channel one-dimensional quantum liquid. In contrast to classical fluids, instead of a single sound mode we find two modes of density oscillations. The speeds at which these two sound modes propagate are nearly equal, with the difference that scales linearly with the small temperature of the system. The two sound modes emerge as hybrids of the first and second sounds, and combine oscillations of both density and entropy of the liquid.

Observation of Spin Superfluidity in a Bose Gas Mixture

The spin dynamics of a harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein condensed binary mixture of sodium atoms is experimentally investigated at finite temperature. In the collisional regime the motion of the thermal component is shown to be damped because of spin drag, while the two condensates exhibit a counterflow oscillation without friction, thereby providing direct evidence for spin superfluidity. Results are also reported in the collisionless regime where the spin components of both the condensate and thermal part oscillate without damping, their relative motion being driven by a mean-field effect. We also measure the static polarizability of the condensed and thermal parts and we find a large increase of the condensate polarizability with respect to the T=0 value, in agreement with the predictions of theory.

Second Sound in Systems of One-Dimensional Fermions

We study sound in Galilean invariant systems of one-dimensional fermions. At low temperatures, we find a broad range of frequencies in which in addition to the waves of density there is a second sound corresponding to the ballistic propagation of heat in the system. The damping of the second sound mode is weak, provided the frequency is large compared to a relaxation rate that is exponentially small at low temperatures. At lower frequencies, the second sound mode is damped, and the propagation of heat is diffusive.

Superfluid Filaments of Dipolar Bosons in Free Space

We systematically investigate the zero temperature phase diagram of bosons interacting via dipolar interactions in three dimensions in free space via path integral Monte Carlo simulations with a few hundreds of particles and periodic boundary conditions based on the worm algorithm. Upon increasing the strength of the dipolar interaction and at sufficiently high densities we find a wide region where filaments are stabilized along the direction of the external field. Most interestingly by computing the superfluid fraction we conclude that the superfluidity is anisotropic and is greatly suppressed along the orthogonal plane. Finally, we perform simulations at finite temperature confirming the stability of the filaments against thermal fluctuations and provide an estimate of the superfluid fraction in the weak coupling limit in the framework of the Landau two-fluid model.

Two-terminal transport measurements with cold atoms

In recent years, the ability of cold atom experiments to explore condensed-matter-related questions has dramatically progressed. Transport experiments, in particular, have expanded to the point in which conductance and other transport coefficients can now be measured in a way that is directly analogous to solid-state physics, extending cold-atom-based quantum simulations into the domain of quantum electronic devices. In this topical review, we describe the transport experiments performed with cold gases in the two-terminal configuration, with an emphasis on the specific features of cold atomic gases compared to solid-state physics. We present the experimental techniques and the main experimental findings, focusing on-but not restricted to-the recent experiments performed by our group. We finally discuss the perspectives opened up by this approach, the main technical and conceptual challenges for future developments, and potential applications in quantum simulation for transport phenomena and mesoscopic physics problems.

Critical Velocity and Dissipation of an Ultracold Bose-Fermi Counterflow

We study the dynamics of counterflowing bosonic and fermionic lithium atoms. First, by tuning the interaction strength we measure the critical velocity v(c) of the system in the BEC-BCS crossover in the low temperature regime and we compare it to the recent prediction of Castin et al., C. R. Phys. 16, 241 (2015). Second, raising the temperature of the mixture slightly above the superfluid transitions reveals an unexpected phase locking of the oscillations of the clouds induced by dissipation.

Superfluidity in topologically nontrivial flat bands

Topological invariants built from the periodic Bloch functions characterize new phases of matter, such as topological insulators and topological superconductors. The most important topological invariant is the Chern number that explains the quantized conductance of the quantum Hall effect. Here we provide a general result for the superfluid weight Ds of a multiband superconductor that is applicable to topologically nontrivial bands with nonzero Chern number C. We find that the integral over the Brillouin-zone of the quantum metric, an invariant calculated from the Bloch functions, gives the superfluid weight in a flat band, with the bound Ds⩾|C|. Thus, even a flat band can carry finite superfluid current, provided the Chern number is nonzero. As an example, we provide Ds for the time-reversal invariant attractive Harper-Hubbard model that can be experimentally tested in ultracold gases. In general, our results establish that a topologically nontrivial flat band is a promising concept for increasing the critical temperature of the superconducting transition.

Hydrodynamics of Normal Atomic Gases with Spin-orbit Coupling

Successful realization of spin-orbit coupling in atomic gases by the NIST scheme opens the prospect of studying the effects of spin-orbit coupling on many-body physics in an unprecedentedly controllable way. Here we derive the linearized hydrodynamic equations for the normal atomic gases of the spin-orbit coupling by the NIST scheme with zero detuning. We show that the hydrodynamics of the system crucially depends on the momentum susceptibilities which can be modified by the spin-orbit coupling. We reveal the effects of the spin-orbit coupling on the sound velocities and the dipole mode frequency of the gases by applying our formalism to the ideal Fermi gas. We also discuss the generalization of our results to other situations.

Critical velocity in the BEC-BCS crossover

We map out the critical velocity in the crossover from Bose-Einstein condensation to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluidity with ultracold ^{6}Li gases. A small attractive potential is dragged along lines of constant column density. The rate of the induced heating increases steeply above a critical velocity v_{c}. In the same samples, we measure the speed of sound v_{s} by exciting density waves and compare the results to the measured values of v_{c}. We perform numerical simulations in the Bose-Einstein condensation regime and find very good agreement, validating the approach. In the strongly correlated regime our measurements of v_{c} provide a testing ground for theoretical approaches.

Peltier cooling of fermionic quantum gases

We propose a cooling scheme for fermionic quantum gases, based on the principles of the Peltier thermoelectric effect and energy filtering. The system to be cooled is connected to another harmonically trapped gas acting as a reservoir. The cooling is achieved by two simultaneous processes: (i) the system is evaporatively cooled, and (ii) cold fermions from deep below the Fermi surface of the reservoir are injected below the Fermi level of the system, in order to fill the "holes" in the energy distribution. This is achieved by a suitable energy dependence of the transmission coefficient connecting the system to the reservoir. The two processes can be viewed as simultaneous evaporative cooling of particles and holes. We show that both a significantly lower entropy per particle and faster cooling rate can be achieved in this way than by using only evaporative cooling.

Fast thermalization and Helmholtz oscillations of an ultracold Bose gas

We analyze theoretically the transport properties of a weakly interacting ultracold Bose gas enclosed in two reservoirs connected by a constriction. We assume that the transport of the superfluid part is hydrodynamic, and we describe the ballistic transport of the normal part using the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. Modeling the coupled evolution of the phase, atom number, and temperature mismatches between the reservoirs, we predict that Helmholtz (plasma) oscillations can be observed at nonzero temperatures below Tc. We show that, because of its strong compressibility, the Bose gas is characterized by a fast thermalization compared to the damping time for plasma oscillations, accompanied by a fast transfer of the normal component. This fast thermalization also affects the gas above Tc, where we present a comparison to the ideal fermionic case. Moreover, we outline the possible realization of a superleak through the inclusion of a disordered potential.

Light-induced collective pseudospin precession resonating with Higgs mode in a superconductor

Superconductors host collective modes that can be manipulated with light. We show that a strong terahertz light field can induce oscillations of the superconducting order parameter in NbN with twice the frequency of the terahertz field. The result can be captured as a collective precession of Anderson's pseudospins in ac driving fields. A resonance between the field and the Higgs amplitude mode of the superconductor then results in large terahertz third-harmonic generation. The method we present here paves a way toward nonlinear quantum optics in superconductors with driving the pseudospins collectively and can be potentially extended to exotic superconductors for shedding light on the character of order parameters and their coupling to other degrees of freedom.

Instability windows and evolution of rapidly rotating neutron stars

We consider an instability of rapidly rotating neutron stars in low-mass x-ray binaries (LMXBs) with respect to excitation of r modes (which are analogous to Earth's Rossby waves controlled by the Coriolis force). We argue that finite temperature effects in the superfluid core of a neutron star lead to a resonance coupling and enhanced damping (and hence stability) of oscillation modes at certain stellar temperatures. Using a simple phenomenological model we demonstrate that neutron stars with high spin frequency may spend a substantial amount of time at these "resonance" temperatures. This finding allows us to explain puzzling observations of hot rapidly rotating neutron stars in LMXBs and to predict a new class of hot, nonaccreting, rapidly rotating neutron stars, some of which may have already been observed and tentatively identified as quiescent LMXB candidates. We also impose a new theoretical limit on the neutron star spin frequency, which can explain the cutoff spin frequency ∼730  Hz, following from the statistical analysis of accreting millisecond x-ray pulsars. In addition to explaining the observations, our model provides a new tool to constrain superdense matter properties by comparing measured and theoretically predicted resonance temperatures.

Local observation of pair condensation in a Fermi gas at unitarity

We present measurements of the local (homogeneous) density-density response function of a Fermi gas at unitarity using spatially resolved Bragg spectroscopy. By analyzing the Bragg response across one axis of the cloud, we extract the response function for a uniform gas which shows a clear signature of the Bose-Einstein condensation of pairs of fermions when the local temperature drops below the superfluid transition temperature. The method we use for local measurement generalizes a scheme for obtaining the local pressure in a harmonically trapped cloud from the line density and can be adapted to provide any homogeneous parameter satisfying the local density approximation.

Discontinuities in the first and second sound velocities at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition

We calculate the temperature dependence of the first and second sound velocities in the superfluid phase of a 2D dilute Bose gas by solving Landau's two fluid hydrodynamic equations. We predict the occurrence of a significant discontinuity in both velocities at the critical temperature, as a consequence of the jump of the superfluid density characterizing the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. The key role of the thermal expansion coefficient is discussed. We find that second sound in this dilute Bose gas can be easily excited through a density perturbation, thereby, making the perspective of the measurement of the superfluid density particularly favorable.

Quantized superfluid vortex rings in the unitary Fermi gas

In a recent article, Yefsah et al. [Nature (London) 499, 426 (2013)] report the observation of an unusual excitation in an elongated harmonically trapped unitary Fermi gas. After phase imprinting a domain wall, they observe oscillations almost an order of magnitude slower than predicted by any theory of domain walls which they interpret as a "heavy soliton" of inertial mass some 200 times larger than the free fermion mass or 50 times larger than expected for a domain wall. We present compelling evidence that this "soliton" is instead a quantized vortex ring, by showing that the main aspects of the experiment can be naturally explained within the framework of time-dependent superfluid density functional theories.

A thermoelectric heat engine with ultracold atoms

Thermoelectric effects, such as the generation of a particle current by a temperature gradient, have their origin in a reversible coupling between heat and particle flows. These effects are fundamental probes for materials and have applications to cooling and power generation. Here, we demonstrate thermoelectricity in a fermionic cold atoms channel in the ballistic and diffusive regimes, connected to two reservoirs. We show that the magnitude of the effect and the efficiency of energy conversion can be optimized by controlling the geometry or disorder strength. Our observations are in quantitative agreement with a theoretical model based on the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. Our device provides a controllable model system to explore mechanisms of energy conversion and realizes a cold atom-based heat engine.