Hui Hu

We solve the two-electron problem on a square lattice with $d$-wave altermagnetism, considering both on-site and nearest-neighbor attractive interactions. The altermagnetic spin-splitting in the single-particle dispersion naturally gives rise to a ground state of two-electron bound pairs with nonzero center-of-mass momentum. The emergence of finite-momentum bound states suggests that altermagnetic spin splitting may favor pairing at nonzero center-of-mass momentum, which could be relevant for proposed Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov superconductivity in altermagnetic systems. Additionally, when the nearest-neighbor attraction is strong, the resulting finite-momentum bound pairs exhibit a mixture of both spin-singlet and spin-triplet characteristics, suggesting the possibility of unconventional superconductors, where spin-singlet and spin-triplet pairings coexist.

We systematically investigate the emergence of finite-momentum Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconductivity in a square lattice Hubbard model with finite filling, driven by either $d_{xy}$-wave or $d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$-wave altermagnetic order in the presence of on-site $s$-wave attractive interactions. Our study combines mean-field calculation in the superconducting phase with pairing instability analysis of the normal state, incorporating the next-nearest-neighbor hopping in the single-particle dispersion relation. We demonstrate that the two types of altermagnetism have markedly different impacts on the stabilization of FFLO states. Specifically, $d_{xy}$-wave altermagnetism supports FFLO superconductivity over a broad parameter regime at low fillings, whereas $d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$-wave altermagnetism only induces FFLO pairing in a narrow range at high fillings. Furthermore, we find that the presence of a Van Hove singularity in the density of states tends to suppress FFLO superconductivity. These findings may provide guidance for experimental exploration of altermagnetism-induced FFLO states in real materials with more complex electronic structures.

We predict the existence of two tri-critical quantum Lifshitz points in recently discovered d -wave altermagnetic metals subjected to an external magnetic field. These points connect a spatially modulated Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase, a uniform polarized Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) superconducting phase, and the normal metallic phase in a nontrivial manner. Depending on whether the FFLO state is primarily induced by the magnetic field or by d -wave altermagnetism, we classify the corresponding Lifshitz points as field-driven or altermagnetism-driven, respectively. Notably, the two types exhibit distinct behaviors: the transition from the FFLO phase to the polarized BCS phase is first-order near the field-driven Lifshitz point, as might be expected, whereas it becomes continuous near the altermagnetism-driven Lifshitz point. We further explore the effects of finite temperature and find that the altermagnetism-driven Lifshitz point is significantly more sensitive to thermal fluctuations.

By using both diagrammatic theory and Chevy ansatz approach, we derive an exact set of equations, which determines the spectral function of Fermi polarons with multiple particle-hole excitations at nonzero temperature. In the diagrammatic theory, we find out the complete series of Feynman diagrams for the multi-particle vertex functions, when the unregularized contact interaction strength becomes infinitesimal, a typical situation occurring in two- or three-dimensional free space. The latter Chevy ansatz approach is more widely applicable, allowing a nonzero interaction strength. We clarify the equivalence of the two approaches for an infinitesimal interaction strength and show that the variational coefficients in the Chevy ansatz are precisely the on-shell multi-particle vertex functions divided by an excitation energy. Truncated to a particular order of particle-hole excitations, the set of equations can be used to approximately calculate the finite-temperature polaron spectral function, once the numerical singularities in the equations are appropriately treated. As a concrete example, we calculate the finite-temperature spectral function of Fermi polarons in one-dimensional lattices, taking into account all the two-particle-hole excitations. We show that the inclusion of two-particle-hole excitations quantitatively improve the predictions on the polaron spectral function. Our results provide a useful way to solve the challenge problem of accurately predicting the finite-temperature spectral function of Fermi polarons in three-dimensional free space. In addition, our clarification of the complete set of Feynman diagrams for the multi-particle polaron vertex functions may inspire the development of more accurate diagrammatic theories of population-imbalanced strongly interacting Fermi gases, beyond the conventional many-body T-matrix approximation.

We present an exact solution for effective polaron-polaron interactions between heavy impurities, mediated by a sea of noninteracting light fermions in the quantum Hall regime with highly degenerate Landau levels. For weak attraction between impurities and fermions, where only the manifold of lowest Landau levels is relevant, we obtain an analytical expression of mediated polaron-polaron interactions. Remarkably, polaron interactions are exactly zero when fermions in the lowest Landau levels outnumber heavy impurities. For strong attraction, different manifolds of higher Landau levels come into play and we derive a set of equations that can be used to numerically solve the mediated polaron interaction potential. We find that the potential vanishes when the distance R between impurities is larger than the magnetic length, but strongly diverges at short range following a Coulomb form − 1 / R . Our exact results of polaron-polaron interactions might be examined in cold-atom setups, where a system of Fermi polarons in the quantum Hall regime is realized with a synthetic gauge field or under fast rotation. Our predictions could also be useful to understand the effective interaction between exciton-polarons in electron-doped semiconductors under strong magnetic field.

We calculate the exact spectral function of a single impurity repulsively interacting with a bath of fermions in one-dimensional lattices, by deriving the explicit expression of the form factor for both regular Bethe states and the irregular spin-flip state and η-pairing state, based on the exactly solvable one-dimensional Hubbard model. While at low impurity momentum Q∼0 the spectral function is dominated by two power-law Fermi singularities, at large momentum we observe that the two singularities develop into two-sided distributions and eventually become anomalous Fermi singularities at the boundary of the Brillouin zone (i.e., Q=±π), with the power-law tails extending toward low energy. Near the quarter filling of the Fermi bath, we also find two broad polaron peaks at large impurity momentum, collectively contributed by many excited many-body states with non-negligible form factors. Our exact results of those distinct features in one-dimensional Fermi polarons, which have no correspondences in two and three dimensions, could be readily probed in cold-atom laboratories by trapping highly imbalanced two-component fermionic atoms into one-dimensional optical lattices.