Two-dimensional Fermi gas in antiparallel magnetic fields

Abstract: We study a two-dimensional Fermi gas with an attractive interaction subjected to synthetic magnetic fields assumed to be mutually antiparallel for two different spin components. By employing the mean-field approximation, we find that its phase diagram at zero temperature consists of pair superfluid and quantum spin Hall insulator phases and closely resembles that of the Bose-Hubbard model. The resulting two phases are separated by a second-order quantum phase transition classified into the universality class of either the dilute Bose gas or the XY model. We also show that the pairing gap can be enhanced significantly by the antiparallel magnetic fields as a consequence of magnetic catalysis, which may facilitate the realization of the pair superfluid in two dimensions by ultracold atom experiments.