Higgs oscillations in a unitary Fermi superfluid
- Others:
- Swinburne University of Technology [Melbourne]
- Institut de Physique de Nice (INPHYNI) ; Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)
- Laboratoire de Physique Théorique (LPT) ; Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Fédération de recherche « Matière et interactions » (FeRMI) ; Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Toulouse (INSA Toulouse) ; Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Toulouse (INSA Toulouse) ; Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Eindhoven University of Technology [Eindhoven] (TU/e)
- University of Trento [Trento]
- ANR-21-CE47-0009,Quantum-SOPHA,Simulateurs quantiques 1D avec des photons et des atomes(2021)
Description
Symmetry-breaking phase transitions are central to our understanding of states of matter. When a continuous symmetry is spontaneously broken, new excitations appear that are tied to fluctuations of the order parameter. In superconductors and fermionic superfluids, the phase and amplitude can fluctuate independently, giving rise to two distinct collective branches. However amplitude fluctuations are difficult to both generate and measure, as they do not couple directly to the density of fermions and have only been observed indirectly to date. Here, we excite amplitude oscillations in an atomic Fermi gas with resonant interactions by an interaction quench. Exploiting the sensitivity of Bragg spectroscopy to the amplitude of the order parameter, we measure the time-resolved response of the atom cloud, directly revealing amplitude oscillations at twice the frequency of the gap. The magnitude of the oscillatory response shows a strong temperature dependence, and the oscillations appear to decay faster than predicted by time-dependent BCS theory applied to our experimental setup.
Additional details
- URL
- https://hal.science/hal-04288770
- URN
- urn:oai:HAL:hal-04288770v1
- Origin repository
- UNICA