Finite size effects for the gap in the excitation spectrum of the one-dimensional Hubbard model

We study finite size effects for the gap of the quasiparticle excitation spectrum in the weakly interacting regime one-dimensional Hubbard model with on-site attraction. Two type of corrections to the result of the thermodynamic limit are obtained. Aside from a power law (conformal) correction due to gapless excitations which behaves as $1/N_a$, where $N_a$ is the number of lattice sites, we obtain corrections related to the existence of gapped excitations. First of all, there is an exponential correction which in the weakly interacting regime ($|U|\ll t$) behaves as $\sim \exp (-N_a \Delta_{\infty}/4 t)$ in the extreme limit of $N_a \Delta_{\infty} /t \gg 1$, where $t$ is the hopping amplitude, $U$ is the on-site energy, and $\Delta_{\infty}$ is the gap in the thermodynamic limit. Second, in a finite size system a spin-flip producing unpaired fermions leads to the appearance of solitons with non-zero momenta, which provides an extra (non-exponential) contribution $\delta$. For moderate but still large values of $N_a\Delta_{\infty} /t$, these corrections significantly increase and may become comparable with the $1/N_a$ conformal correction. Moreover, in the case of weak interactions where $\Delta_{\infty}\ll t$, the exponential correction exceeds higher order power law corrections in a wide range of parameters, namely for $N_a\lesssim (8t/\Delta_{\infty})\ln(4t/|U|)$, and so does $\delta$ even in a wider range of $N_a$. For sufficiently small number of particles, which can be of the order of thousands in the weakly interacting regime, the gap is fully dominated by finite size effects.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Scattering properties of weakly bound dimers of fermionic atoms

We consider weakly bound diatomic molecules (dimers) formed in a two-component atomic Fermi gas with a large positive scattering length for the interspecies interaction. We develop a theoretical approach for calculating atom-dimer and dimer-dimer elastic scattering and for analyzing the inelastic collisional relaxation of the molecules into deep bound states. This approach is based on the single-channel zero range approximation, and we find that it is applicable in the vicinity of a wide two-body Feshbach resonance. Our results draw prospects for various interesting manipulations of weakly bound dimers of fermionic atoms.Comment: extended version of cond-mat/030901

Zero sound in a two-dimensional dipolar Fermi gas

We study zero sound in a weakly interacting 2D gas of single-component fermionic dipoles (polar molecules or atoms with a large magnetic moment) tilted with respect to the plane of their translational motion. It is shown that the propagation of zero sound is provided by both mean field and many-body (beyond mean field) effects, and the anisotropy of the sound velocity is the same as the one of the Fermi velocity. The damping of zero sound modes can be much slower than that of quasiparticle excitations of the same energy. One thus has wide possibilities for the observation of zero sound modes in experiments with 2D fermionic dipoles, although the zero sound peak in the structure function is very close to the particle-hole continuum.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Stable dilute supersolid of two-dimensional dipolar bosons

We consider two-dimensional bosonic dipoles oriented perpendicularly to the plane. On top of the usual two-body contact and long-range dipolar interactions we add a contact three-body repulsion as expected, in particular, for dipoles in the bilayer geometry with tunneling. The three-body repulsion is crucial for stabilizing the system, and we show that our model allows for stable continuous space supersolid states in the dilute regime and calculate the zero-temperature phase diagram.Comment: revised version, 5 pages, 2 figures, with 3 pages supplementary materia

Feshbach resonances in Cesium at Ultra-low Static Magnetic Fields

We have observed Feshbach resonances for 133Cs atoms in two different hyperfine states at ultra-low static magnetic fields by using an atomic fountain clock. The extreme sensitivity of our setup allows for high signal-to-noise-ratio observations at densities of only 2*10^7 cm^{-3}. We have reproduced these resonances using coupled-channels calculations which are in excellent agreement with our measurements. We justify that these are s-wave resonances involving weakly-bound states of the triplet molecular Hamiltonian, identify the resonant closed channels, and explain the observed multi-peak structure. We also describe a model which precisely accounts for the collisional processes in the fountain and which explains the asymmetric shape of the observed Feshbach resonances in the regime where the kinetic energy dominates over the coupling strength.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Crystalline phase of strongly interacting Fermi mixtures

We show that the system of weakly bound molecules of heavy and light fermionic atoms is characterized by a long-range intermolecular repulsion and can undergo a gas-crystal quantum transition if the mass ratio exceeds a critical value. For the critical mass ratio above 100 obtained in our calculations, this crystalline order can be observed as a superlattice in an optical lattice for heavy atoms with a small filling factor. We also find that this novel system is sufficiently stable with respect to molecular relaxation into deep bound states and to the process of trimer formation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 color figure, published versio

Production of Long-Lived Ultracold Li2 Molecules from a Fermi gas

We create weakly-bound Li2 molecules from a degenerate two component Fermi gas by sweeping a magnetic field across a Feshbach resonance. The atom-molecule transfer efficiency can reach 85% and is studied as a function of magnetic field and initial temperature. The bosonic molecules remain trapped for 0.5 s and their temperature is within a factor of 2 from the Bose-Einstein condensation temperature. A thermodynamical model reproduces qualitatively the experimental findings

Ionization rates in a Bose-Einstein condensate of metastable Helium

We have studied ionizing collisions in a BEC of He*. Measurements of the ion production rate combined with measurements of the density and number of atoms for the same sample allow us to estimate both the 2 and 3-body contributions to this rate. A comparison with the decay of the number of condensed atoms in our magnetic trap, in the presence of an rf-shield, indicates that ionizing collisions are largely or wholly responsible for the loss. Quantum depletion makes a substantial correction to the 3-body rate constant.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure