Phases and dynamics of few fermionic impurities immersed in two-dimensional boson droplets

Abstract

We unravel the ground state properties and emergent nonequilibrium dynamics of a mixture consisting of a few spin-polarized fermions embedded in a two-dimensional bosonic quantum droplet. For an increasingly attractive droplet-fermion interaction we find a transition from a spatially delocalized fermion configuration to a state where the fermions are highly localized and isolated. This process is accompanied by the rise of induced fermion-fermion interactions mediated by the droplet. Additionally, for increasing attractive droplet-fermion coupling, undulations in the droplet density occur in the vicinity of the fermions manifesting the back-action of the latter. Following interaction quenches from strong to weaker attractive droplet-fermion couplings reveals the spontaneous nucleation of complex excitation patterns in the fermion density such as ring- and cross-shaped structures. These stem from the enhanced interference of the fermions that remain trapped within the droplet, which emulates, to a good degree, an effective potential for the fermions. The non-negligible back-action of the droplet manifests itself in the fact that the effective potential predictions are less accurate at the level of the many-body wave function. Our results provide a paradigm for physics beyond the reduced single-component droplet model, unveiling the role of back-action in droplets and the effect of induced mediated interactions. Published by the American Physical Society 2024