Rotating a Rashba-coupled Fermi gas in two dimensions

We analyze the interplay of adiabatic rotation and Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the BCS-BEC evolution of a harmonically trapped Fermi gas in two dimensions under the assumption that vortices are not excited. First, by taking the trapping potential into account via both the semiclassical and exact quantum-mechanical approaches, we firmly establish the parameter regime where the noninteracting gas forms a ring-shaped annulus. Then, by taking the interactions into account via the BCS mean-field approximation, we study the pair-breaking mechanism that is induced by rotation, i.e., the Coriolis effects. In particular, we show that the interplay allows for the possibility of creating either an isolated annulus of rigidly rotating normal particles that is disconnected from the central core of nonrotating superfluid pairs or an intermediate mediator phase where the superfluid pairs and normal particles coexist as a partially rotating gapless superfluid.