Gapless Topological Fulde-Ferrell Superfluidity in Spin-Orbit Coupled Fermi Gases

Topological superfluids usually refer to a superfluid state which is gapped in the bulk but metallic at the boundary. Here we report that a gapless, topologically nontrivial superfluid with an inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell pairing order parameter can emerge in a two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas, in the presence of both in-plane and out-of-plane Zeeman fields. The Fulde-Ferrell pairing-induced by the spin-orbit coupling and in-plane Zeeman field-is responsible for this gapless feature. This exotic superfluid has a significant Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature and has robust Majorana edge modes against disorder owing to its topological nature.