Quartet Superfluid in Two-dimensional Mass-imbalanced Fermi Mixtures

Abstract

Quartet superfluid (QSF) is a distinct type of fermion superfluidity that exhibits high-order correlation beyond the conventional BCS pairing paradigm. In this Letter, we report the emergent QSF in 2D mass-imbalanced Fermi mixtures with two-body contact interactions. This is facilitated by the formation of quartet bound state in vacuum that consists of a light atom and three heavy fermions. For an optimized heavy-light number ratio $3:1$, we identify QSF as the ground state in a considerable parameter regime of mass imbalance and 2D coupling strength. Its unique high-order correlation can be manifested in the momentum-space crystallization of pairing field and density distribution of heavy fermions. Our results can be readily detected in Fermi-Fermi mixtures nowadays realized in cold atoms laboratories, and meanwhile shed light on exotic superfluidity in a broad context of mass-imbalanced fermion mixtures.