Interaction-induced localization of mobile impurities in ultracold systems

Abstract

The impurities, introduced intentionally or accidentally into certain materials, can significantly modify their characteristics or reveal their intrinsic physical properties, and thus play an important role in solid-state physics. Different from those static impurities in a solid, the impurities realized in cold atomic systems are naturally mobile. Here we propose an effective theory for treating some unique behaviors exhibited by ultracold mobile impurities. Our theory reveals the interaction-induced transition between the extended and localized impurity states, and also explains the essential features obtained from several previous models in a unified way. Based on our theory, we predict many intriguing phenomena in ultracold systems associated with the extended and localized impurities, including the formation of the impurity-molecules and impurity-lattices. We hope this investigation can open up a new avenue for the future studies on ultracold mobile impurities.