Creating p-wave superfluids and topological excitations in optical lattices

We propose to realize a p-wave superfluid using bosons mixed with a single species of fermions in a deep optical lattice. We analyze with a self-consistent method its excitation spectrum in presence of a vortex, and we point out the range of interaction strengths in which the zero-energy mode with topological character exists on a finite optical lattice. Lattice effects are strongest close to fermionic half filling: here the linearity of the low-lying spectrum is lost, and a new class of extended zero-energy modes with checkerboard structure and d-wave symmetry appears. © 2010 The American Physical Society.