Nature of the polaron-molecule transition in Fermi polarons

It has been commonly believed that a polaron-to-molecule transition occurs in three-dimensional (3D) and 2D Fermi polaron systems as the attraction between the single impurity and majority fermions gets stronger. The conclusion has been drawn from the separate treatment of polaron and molecule states and thus deserves a close reexamination. In this work, we explore the physics of polarons and molecules by utilizing a unified variational Ansatz with up to two particle-hole (ph) excitations (V-2ph). We confirm the existence of a first-order transition in 3D and 2D Fermi polarons, and we show that the nature of such a transition lies in an energy competition between systems with different momenta, Q = 0 and vertical bar Q vertical bar = k(F); here Q is defined as the momentum of a Fermi polaron system with respect to the Fermi sea of majority fermions (with Fermi momentum k(F)). The literally proposed molecule Ansatz is identified as an asymptotic limit of the vertical bar Q vertical bar = k(F) state in a strong-coupling regime, which implies a huge SO(3) (for 3D) or SO(2) (for 2D) ground-state degeneracy in this regime. The recognition of such degeneracy is crucially important for evaluating the molecule occupation in realistic systems with finite impurity density and at finite temperature. To compare with recent experiment of 3D Fermi polarons, we have calculated various physical quantities under the V-2ph framework, and we obtained results that are in good agreement with experimental data in the weak-coupling and near-resonance regime. Further, to check the validity of our conclusion in 2D, we have adopted a different variational method based on the Gaussian sample of high-order ph excitations (V-Gph), and we found the same conclusion on the nature of the polaron-molecule transition therein. For a 1D system, the V-2ph method predicts no sharp transition, and the ground state is always at the Q = 0 sector, consistent with the exact Bethe-Ansatz solution. The presence/absence of a polaron-molecule transition is analyzed to be closely related to the interplay effect of Pauli-blocking and ph excitations in different dimensions.

Automated summary

In this study, the physics of Fermi polarons and molecules have been explored using a unified variational Ansatz, confirming the existence of a first-order transition in 3D and 2D Fermi polarons. The nature of this transition is determined by an energy competition between systems with different momenta. Additionally, different variational methods have been used to study the nature of the polaron-molecule transition in 2D systems, with consistent conclusions reached.