Crystalline phase of strongly interacting Fermi mixtures

Petrov, D. S.; Astrakharchik, G. E.; Papoular, D. J.; Salomon, C.; Shlyapnikov, G. V.

Crystalline phase of strongly interacting Fermi mixtures

Authors

Description

We show that the system of weakly bound molecules of heavy and light fermionic atoms is characterized by a long-range intermolecular repulsion and can undergo a gas-crystal quantum transition if the mass ratio exceeds a critical value. For the critical mass ratio above 100 obtained in our calculations, this crystalline order can be observed as a superlattice in an optical lattice for heavy atoms with a small filling factor. We also find that this novel system is sufficiently stable with respect to molecular relaxation into deep bound states and to the process of trimer formation.
4 pages, 1 color figure, published version