Lifshitz Point in the Phase Diagram of Resonantly Interacting 6Li-40K Mixtures

Abstract

We consider a strongly interacting 6Li-40K mixture, which is imbalanced both in the masses and the densities of the two fermionic species. At present, it is the experimentalist’s favorite for reaching the superfluid regime. We construct an effective thermodynamic potential that leads to excellent agreement with Monte Carlo results for the normal state. We use it to determine the universal phase diagram of the mixture in the unitarity limit, where we find, in contrast to the mass-balanced case, the presence of a Lifshitz point. This point is characterized by the effective mass of the Cooper pairs becoming negative, which signals an instability towards a supersolid phase.