Quantum scale anomaly and spatial coherence in a 2D Fermi superfluid

Abstract

A quantum breakdown At low temperatures, two-dimensional (2D) systems with contact interactions are expected to exhibit quantum anomalies—a breakdown of scaling laws that characterize such systems in the classical regime. Signatures of these anomalies have been observed in the real-space properties of 2D Fermi gases, but the effect is much less pronounced than expected on theoretical grounds. Murthy et al. studied the momentum-space profiles of 2D superfluids of fermionic atoms. They initially perturbed the gas and then monitored the momentum distribution of its atoms. In the regime of strong interactions between the atoms, the momentum profiles deviated markedly from the classical scaling. Science , this issue p. 268