Contributor info: Dr Dmitry Petrov

Dmitry S. Petrov

SciPost Phys. 19, 037 (2025) · published 13 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

By using the Bogoliubov perturbation theory we describe the self-bound ground state and excited breathing states of $N$ two-dimensional bosons with zero-range attractive interactions. Our results for the ground state energy $B_N$ and size $R_N$ improve previously known large-$N$ asymptotes and we better understand the crossover to the few-body regime. The breathing oscillations, absent at the mean-field level, result from the quantum-mechanical breaking of the mean-field scale symmetry. The breathing-mode frequency scales as $\Omega\propto |B_N|/\sqrt{N}$ at large $N$.

Jules Givois, Andrea Tononi, Dmitry S. Petrov

SciPost Phys. 17, 050 (2024) · published 13 August 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We study binding of $N$ identical heavy fermions by a light atom in two dimensions assuming zero-range attractive heavy-light interactions. By using the mean-field theory valid for large $N$ we show that the $N+1$ cluster is bound when the mass ratio exceeds $1.074N^2$. The mean-field theory, being scale invariant in two dimensions, predicts only the shapes of the clusters leaving their sizes and energies undefined. By taking into account beyond-mean-field effects we find closed-form expressions for these quantities. We also discuss differences between the Thomas-Fermi and Hartree-Fock approaches for treating the heavy fermions.

Jules Givois, Andrea Tononi, and Dmitry S. Petrov

SciPost Phys. 14, 091 (2023) · published 3 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

For sufficiently large mass ratios the attractive exchange force caused by a single light atom interacting with a few heavy identical fermions can overcome their Fermi degeneracy pressure and bind them into an $N+1$ cluster. Here, by using a mean-field approach valid for large $N$, we find that $N+1$ clusters can attract each other and form a self-bound charge density wave, the properties of which we fully characterize. Our work shows that there are no fundamental obstacles for having self-bound states in fermionic mixtures with zero-range interactions.