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

authored by
Daniel K. Hoffmann, Vijay Pal Singh, Thomas Paintner, Manuel Jäger, Wolfgang Limmer, Ludwig Mathey, Johannes Hecker Denschlag
Abstract

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.

Organisation(s)
Institute of Theoretical Physics
QuantumFrontiers
External Organisation(s)
Ulm University
Universität Hamburg
Type
Article
Journal
Nature Communications
Volume
12
ISSN
2041-1723
Publication date
06.12.2021
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Chemistry, General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology, General Physics and Astronomy
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27149-z (Access: Open)