7,860 research outputs found
Density and spin response of a strongly-interacting Fermi gas in the attractive and quasi-repulsive regime
Recent experimental advances in ultra-cold Fermi gases allow for exploring
response functions under different dynamical conditions. In particular, the
issue of obtaining a "quasi-repulsive" regime starting from a Fermi gas with an
attractive inter-particle interaction while avoiding the formation of the
two-body bound state is currently debated. Here, we provide a calculation of
the density and spin response for a wide range of temperature and coupling both
in the attractive and quasi-repulsive regime, whereby the system is assumed to
evolve non-adiabatically toward the "upper branch" of the Fermi gas. A
comparison is made with the available experimental data for these two
quantities.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, to appear on Phys. Rev. Let
Size shrinking of composite bosons for increasing density in the BCS to Bose-Einstein crossover
We consider a system of fermions in the continuum case at zero temperature,
in the strong-coupling limit of a short-range attraction when composite bosons
form as bound-fermion pairs. We examine the density dependence of the size of
the composite bosons at leading order in the density ("dilute limit"), and show
on general physical grounds that this size should decrease with increasing
density, both in three and two dimensions. We then compare with the analytic
zero-temperature mean-field solution, which indeed exhibits the size shrinking
of the composite bosons both in three and two dimensions. We argue,
nonetheless, that the two-dimensional mean-field solution is not consistent
with our general result in the "dilute limit", to the extent that mean field
treats the scattering between composite bosons in the Born approximation which
is known to break down at low energy in two dimensions.Comment: Revised version to be published on Eur. Phys. Jour. B, 7 pages, 1
figur
Extracting the condensate density from projection experiments with Fermi gases
A debated issue in the physics of the BCS-BEC crossover with trapped Fermi
atoms is to identify characteristic properties of the superfluid phase.
Recently, a condensate fraction was measured on the BCS side of the crossover
by sweeping the system in a fast (nonadiabatic) way from the BCS to the BEC
sides, thus ``projecting'' the initial many-body state onto a molecular
condensate. We analyze here the theoretical implications of these projection
experiments, by identifying the appropriate quantum-mechanical operator
associated with the measured quantities and relating them to the many-body
correlations occurring in the BCS-BEC crossover. Calculations are presented
over wide temperature and coupling ranges, by including pairing fluctuations on
top of mean field.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
From superconducting fluctuations to the bosonic limit in the response functions above the critical temperature
We investigate the density, current, and spin response functions above the
critical temperature for a system of three-dimensional fermions interacting via
an attractive short-range potential. In the strong-coupling (bosonic) limit of
this interaction, we identify the dominant diagrammatic contributions for a
``dilute'' system of composite bosons which form as bound-fermion pairs, and
compare them with the usual (Aslamazov-Larkin, Maki-Thompson, and
density-of-states) terms occurring in the theory of superconducting
fluctuations above the critical temperature for a clean system in the
weak-coupling limit. We show that, at the zeroth order in the diluteness
parameter for the composite bosons, the Aslamazov-Larkin term still represents
formally the dominant contribution to the density and current response
functions, while the Maki-Thompson and density-of-states terms are strongly
suppressed. Corrections to the Aslamazov-Larkin term are then considered at the
next order in the diluteness parameter for the composite bosons. The spin
response function is also examined, and it is found to be exponentially
suppressed in the bosonic limit only when appropriate sets of diagrams are
considered simultaneously.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Temperature dependence of a vortex in a superfluid Fermi gas
The temperature dependence of an isolated quantum vortex, embedded in an
otherwise homogeneous fermionic superfluid of infinite extent, is determined
via the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations across the BCS-BEC crossover.
Emphasis is given to the BCS side of this crossover, where it is physically
relevant to extend this study up to the critical temperature for the loss of
the superfluid phase, such that the size of the vortex increases without bound.
To this end, two novel techniques are introduced. The first one solves the BdG
equations with "free boundary conditions", which allows one to determine with
high accuracy how the vortex profile matches its asymptotic value at a large
distance from the center, thus avoiding a common practice of constraining the
vortex in a cylinder with infinite walls. The second one improves on the
regularization procedure of the self-consistent gap equation when the
inter-particle interaction is of the contact type, and permits to considerably
reduce the time needed for its numerical integration, by drawing elements from
the derivation of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for composite bosons starting
from the BdG equations.Comment: 18 pgaes, 16 figure
Relative ages of lava flows at Alba Patera, Mars
Many large lava flows on the flanks of Alba Patera are astonishing in their volume and length. As a suite, these flows suggest tremendously voluminous and sustained eruptions, and provide dimensional boundary conditions typically a factor of 100 larger than terrestrial flows. One of the most striking features associated with Alba Patera is the large, radially oriented lava flows that exhibit a variety of flow morphologies. These include sheet flows, tube fed and tube channel flows, and undifferentiated flows. Three groups of flows were studied; flows on the northwest flank, southeast flank, and the intracaldera region. The lava flows discussed probably were erupted as a group during the same major volcanic episode as suggested by the data presented. Absolute ages are poorly constrained for both the individual flows and shield, due in part to disagreement as to which absolute age curve is representative for Mars. A relative age sequence is implied but lacks precision due to the closeness of the size frequency curves
Pairing effects in the normal phase of a two-dimensional Fermi gas
In a recent experiment [M. Feld et al., Nature 480, 75 (2011); B. Froehlich
et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109,130403 (2012)], a pairing gap was detected in a
two-dimensional (2D) Fermi gas with attractive interaction at temperatures
where superfluidity does not occur. The question remains open as to whether
this gap is a pseudogap phenomenon or is due to a molecular state. In this
paper, by using a t-matrix approach, we reproduce quite well the experimental
data for a 2D Fermi gas, and set the boundary between the pseudogap and
molecular regimes. We also show that pseudogap phenomena occurring in 2D and 3D
can be related through a variable spanning the BCS-BEC crossover in a universal
way.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures; final versio
Trapped fermions with density imbalance in the BEC limit
We analyze the effects of imbalancing the populations of two-component
trapped fermions, in the BEC limit of the attractive interaction between
different fermions. Starting from the gap equation with two fermionic chemical
potentials, we derive a set of coupled equations that describe composite bosons
and excess fermions. We include in these equations the processes leading to the
correct dimer-dimer and dimer-fermion scattering lengths. The coupled equations
are then solved in the Thomas-Fermi approximation to obtain the density
profiles for composite bosons and excess fermions, which are relevant to the
recent experiments with trapped fermionic atomsComment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Temperature and coupling dependence of the universal contact intensity for an ultracold Fermi gas
Physical properties of an ultracold Fermi gas in the temperature-coupling
phase diagram can be characterized by the contact intensity C, which enters the
pair-correlation function at short distances and describes how the two-body
problem merges into its surrounding. We show that the local order established
by pairing fluctuations about the critical temperature Tc of the superfluid
transition considerably enhances the contact C in a temperature range where
pseudogap phenomena are maximal. Our ab initio results for C in a trap compare
well with recently available experimental data over a wide coupling range. An
analysis is also provided for the effects of trap averaging on C.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
- …