6,858 research outputs found

    Evolution of the Normal State of a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas from a Pseudogap Phase to a Molecular Bose Gas

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    Wave-vector resolved radio frequency (rf) spectroscopy data for an ultracold trapped Fermi gas are reported for several couplings at Tc, and extensively analyzed in terms of a pairing-fluctuation theory. We map the evolution of a strongly interacting Fermi gas from the pseudogap phase into a fully gapped molecular Bose gas as a function of the interaction strength, which is marked by a rapid disappearance of a remnant Fermi surface in the single-particle dispersion. We also show that our theory of a pseudogap phase is consistent with a recent experimental observation as well as with Quantum Monte Carlo data of thermodynamic quantities of a unitary Fermi gas above Tc.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures. Substantially revised version (to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.

    BCS-BEC crossover at finite temperature in the broken-symmetry phase

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    The BCS-BEC crossover is studied in a systematic way in the broken-symmetry phase between zero temperature and the critical temperature. This study bridges two regimes where quantum and thermal fluctuations are, respectively, important. The theory is implemented on physical grounds, by adopting a fermionic self-energy in the broken-symmetry phase that represents fermions coupled to superconducting fluctuations in weak coupling and to bosons described by the Bogoliubov theory in strong coupling. This extension of the theory beyond mean field proves important at finite temperature, to connect with the results in the normal phase. The order parameter, the chemical potential, and the single-particle spectral function are calculated numerically for a wide range of coupling and temperature. This enables us to assess the quantitative importance of superconducting fluctuations in the broken-symmetry phase over the whole BCS-BEC crossover. Our results are relevant to the possible realizations of this crossover with high-temperature cuprate superconductors and with ultracold fermionic atoms in a trap.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figure

    Quantitative comparison between theoretical predictions and experimental results for the BCS-BEC crossover

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    Theoretical predictions for the BCS-BEC crossover of trapped Fermi atoms are compared with recent experimental results for the density profiles of 6^6Li. The calculations rest on a single theoretical approach that includes pairing fluctuations beyond mean field. Excellent agreement with experimental results is obtained. Theoretical predictions for the zero-temperature chemical potential and gap at the unitarity limit are also found to compare extremely well with Quantum Monte Carlo simulations and with recent experimental results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figure

    Momentum distribution of a trapped Fermi gas with large scattering length

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    Using a scattering length parametrization of the BCS-BEC crossover as well as the local density approximation for the density profile, we calculate the momentum distribution of a harmonically trapped atomic Fermi gas at zero temperature. Various interaction regimes are considered, including the BCS phase, the unitarity limit and the molecular regime. We show that the relevant parameter which characterizes the crossover is given by the dimensionless combination N1/6a/ahoN^{1/6}a/a_{ho}, where NN is the number of atoms, aa is the scattering length and ahoa_{ho} is the oscillator length. The width of the momentum distribution is shown to depend in a crucial way on the value and sign of this parameter. Our predictions can be relevant for experiments on ultracold atomic Fermi gases near a Feshbach resonance.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. A. Added reference

    Homogeneous Fermion Superfluid with Unequal Spin Populations

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    For decades, the conventional view is that an s-wave BCS superfluid can not support uniform spin polarization due to a gap Δ\Delta in the quasiparticle excitation spectrum. We show that this is an artifact of the dismissal of quasiparticle interactions VqpV_{qp}^{} in the conventional approach at the outset. Such interactions can cause triplet fluctuations in the ground state and hence non-zero spin polarization at "magnetic field" h<Δh<\Delta. The resulting ground state is a pairing state of quasiparticles on the ``BCS vacuum". For sufficiently large VqpV_{qp}, the spin polarization of at unitarity has the simple form mμ1/2m\propto \mu^{1/2}. Our study is motivated by the recent experiments at Rice which found evidence of a homogenous superfluid state with uniform spin polarization.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

    Metallic ferromagnetism: Progress in our understanding of an old strong-coupling problem

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    Metallic ferromagnetism is in general an intermediate to strong coupling phenomenon. Since there do not exist systematic analytic methods to investigate such types of problems, the microscopic origin of metallic ferromagnetism is still not sufficiently understood. However, during the last two or three years remarkable progress was made in this field: It is now certain that even in the one-band Hubbard model metallic ferromagnetism is stable in dimensions d=1,d=1, 2, and \infty on regular lattices and at intermediate values of the interaction UU and density nn. In this paper the basic questions and recent insights regarding the microscopic conditions favoring metallic ferromagnetism in this model are reviewed. These findings are contrasted with the results for the orbitally degenerate case.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, latex using vieweg.sty (enclosed); typos corrected; to appear in "Advances in Solid State Physics", Vol. 3

    Pseudogap and spectral function from superconducting fluctuations to the bosonic limit

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    The crossover from weak to strong coupling for a three dimensional continuum model of fermions interacting via an attractive contact potential is studied above the superconducting critical temperature. The pair-fluctuation propagator, the one-loop self-energy, and the spectral function are investigated in a systematic way from the superconducting fluctuation regime (weak coupling) to the bosonic regime (strong coupling). Analytic and numerical results are reported. In the strong-coupling regime, where the pair fluctuation propagator has bosonic character, two quite different peaks appear in the spectral function, a broad one at negative frequencies and a narrow one at positive frequencies. By decreasing coupling, the two-peak structure evolves smoothly. In the weak-coupling regime, where the fluctuation propagator has diffusive Ginzburg-Landau character, the overall line-shape of the spectral function is more symmetric. The systematic analysis of the spectral function identifies specific features which allow one to distinguish by ARPES whether a system is in the weak- or strong-coupling regime. Connection of the results of our analysis with the phenomenology of cuprate superconductors is also attempted and rests on the recently introduced two-gap model.Comment: 19 pages, 18 figure

    Imbalanced Superfluid Phase of a Trapped Fermi Gas in the BCS-BEC Crossover Regime

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    We theoretically investigate the ground state of trapped neutral fermions with population imbalance in the BCS-BEC crossover regime. On the basis of the single-channel Hamiltonian, we perform full numerical calculations of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation coupled with the regularized gap and number equations. The zero-temperature phase diagram in the crossover regime is presented, where the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) pairing state governs the weak-coupling BCS region of a resonance. It is found that the FFLO oscillation vanishes in the BEC side, in which the system under population imbalance turns into a phase separation (PS) between locally binding superfluid and fully polarized spin domains. We also demonstrate numerical calculations with a large particle number O(10^5), comparable to that observed in recent experiments. The resulting density profile on a resonance yields the PS, which is in good agreement with the recent experiments, while the FFLO modulation exists in the pairing field. It is also proposed that the most favorable location for the detection of the FFLO oscillation is in the vicinity of the critical population imbalance in the weak coupling BCS regime, where the oscillation periodicity becomes much larger than the interparticle spacing. Finally, we analyze the radio-frequency (RF) spectroscopy in the imbalanced system. The clear difference in the RF spectroscopy between BCS and BEC sides reveals the structure of the pairing field and local ``magnetization''.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, replaced by the version to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

    Weakly Interacting, Dilute Bose Gases in 2D

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    This article surveys a number of theoretical problems and open questions in the field of two-dimensional dilute Bose gases with weak repulsive interactions. In contrast to three dimensions, in two dimensions the formation of long-range order is prohibited by the Bogoliubov-Hohenberg theorem, and Bose-Einstein condensation is not expected to be realized. Nevertheless, first experimental indications supporting the formation of the condensate in low dimensional systems have been recently obtained. This unexpected behaviour appears to be due to the non-uniformity, introduced into a system by the external trapping potential. Theoretical predictions, made for homogeneous systems, require therefore careful reexamination. We survey a number of popular theoretical treatments of the dilute weakly interacting Bose gas and discuss their regions of applicability. The possibility of Bose-Einstein condensation in a two-dimensional gas, the validity of perturbative t-matrix approximation and diluteness condition are issues that we discuss in detail.Comment: Survey, 25 pages RMP style, revised version, refs added, some changes made, accepted for publication in Rev. Mod. Phy
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