Imbalanced superfluidity with cold atoms: a new way to understand unconventional superconductors and stellar superfluids

费米子超流--自旋1/2粒子无摩擦配对和流动的能力--是一种有趣的量子现象，出现在固态超导体、夸克物质和中子星中。尽管超流对未来的量子技术非常重要，但目前人们对自旋布居不匹配时的超流机制知之甚少。该理论项目与澳大利亚、美国和中国的领先实验室合作，将以超冷费米原子费米气体作为模型系统，极大地提高对不平衡超流的认识。这项研究可能会为重费米子化合物中的非传统超导体和中子星中的恒星新超流体的物理学提供关键的见解。

Fermionic superfluidity – the ability of spin-1/2 particles to pair and flow without friction – is an intriguing quantum phenomenon that occurs in solid-state superconductors, quark matter, and neutron stars. Despite its great importance for future quantum technology, currently the mechanism of superfluidity is poorly understood when the spin population is mismatched. In collaboration with leading laboratories in Australia, the United States of America and China, this theoretical project will greatly enhance the knowledge of imbalanced superfluidity by using ultracold atomic Fermi gases as model systems. The research may give key insight into the physics of unconventional superconductors in heavy-fermion compounds and stellar new superfluids in neutron stars.