We discuss the emergence of rings of zero-energy excitations in momentum space for superfluid phases of ultracold fermions when spin-orbit effects, Zeeman fields, and interactions are varied. We show that phases containing rings of nodes possess nontrivial topological invariants, and that phase transitions between distinct topological phases belong to the Lifshitz class. Upon crossing phase boundaries, existing massless Dirac fermions in the gapless phase annihilate to produce bulk zero-mode Majorana fermions at phase boundaries, and then become massive Dirac fermions in the gapped phase. We characterize these tunable topological phase transitions via several spectroscopic properties, including excitation spectrum, spectral function, and momentum distribution.

• Received 30 December 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.105303