Topological Fulde-Ferrell states in alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms near an orbital Feshbach resonance

Abstract

We study the effects of synthetic spin-orbit coupling on the pairing physics in quasi-one-dimensional ultracold Fermi gases of alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms near an orbital Feshbach resonance (OFR). The interplay between spin-orbit coupling and pairing interactions near the OFR leads to an interesting topological Fulde-Ferrell state, where the nontrivial topology of the state is solely encoded in the closed channel with a topologically trivial Fulde-Ferrell pairing in the open channel. We confirm the topological property of the system by characterizing the Zak phase and the edge states. The topological Fulde-Ferrell state can be identified by the momentum-space density distribution obtained from time-of-flight images.

6 pages, 5 figures