Department of Physics
Condensed Matter Seminar

Recent experimental developments in ultracold alkali atoms have revitalized interest in some basic qualitative questions of quantum matter theory. The prospect rises largely owing to the unprecedented tunability of their physical properties. In this talk, I will report some recent progress in studying new types of crystalline superfluid phases in both Bose and Fermi cold atomic gases. For a Bose system, the model that I will propose is bosonic atoms in the optical lattice p-orbital bands. Such a system displays remarkable novel phases, such as a non-zero momentum px+ipy Bose-Einstein condensate. For a Fermi system, it is an array of weakly coupled one-dimensional ``tubes'' of ultracold spin-imbalanced fermionic atoms. The phase likely to be realized is shown to be the long sought FFLO type.