Quasiparticle spectrum and dynamical stability of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a degenerate Fermi gas

The quasiparticle excitations and dynamical stability of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a quantum degenerate Fermi gas of atoms at zero temperature is studied. The Fermi gas is assumed to be either in the normal state or to have undergone a phase transition to a superfluid state by forming Cooper pairs. The quasiparticle excitations of the Bose-Einstein condensate exhibit a dynamical instability due to a resonant exchange of energy and momentum with quasiparticle excitations of the Fermi gas. The stability regime for the bosons depends on whether the Fermi gas is in the normal state or in the superfluid state. We show that the energy gap in the quasiparticle spectrum for the superfluid state stabilizes the low-energy excitations of the condensate. In the stable regime, we calculate the boson quasiparticle spectrum, which is modified by the fluctuations in the density of the Fermi gas. 5555 2002 The American Physical Society.