We investigate a two-component Fermi gas with unequal spin populations along
the BCS-BEC crossover. By using the extended BCS equations and the concept of
off-diagonal-long-range-order we derive a formula for the condensate number of
Cooper pairs as a function of energy gap, average chemical potential, imbalance
chemical potential and temperature. Then we study the zero-temperature
condensate fraction of Cooper pairs by varying interaction strength and
polarization, finding a depletion of the condensate fraction by increasing the
population imbalance. We also consider explicitly the presence of an external
harmonic confinement and we study, within the local-density approximation, the
phase separation between superfluid and normal phase regions of the polarized
fermionic cloud. In particular, we calculate both condensate density profiles
and total density profiles from the inner superfluid core to the normal region
passing for the interface, where a finite jump in the density is a clear
manifestation of this phase-separated regime. Finally, we compare our
theoretical results with the available experimental data on the condensate
fraction of polarized 6Li atoms [Science 311, 492 (2006)]. These experimental
data are in reasonable agreement with our predictions in a suitable range of
polarizations, but only in the BCS side of the crossover up to unitarity.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, improved version, added a section on the
interpretation of the results, to be published in J. Phys.
