We present a systematic investigation of the effects of "nonmagnetic" impurities on the $s$-wave BCS-BEC crossover in atomic Fermi gases within a pairing fluctuation theory. Both pairing and impurity scattering $T$-matrices are treated self-consistently at the same time. While the system is less sensitive to impurity scattering in the Born limit, for strong impurity scatterers, both the frequency and the gap function are highly renormalized, leading to significant suppression of the superfluid $T_c$, the order parameter and the superfluid density. We also find the formation of impurity bands and smearing of coherence peak in the fermion density of states, leading to a spectrum weight transfer and finite lifetime of Bogoliubov quasiparticles. In the BCS regime, the superfluidity may be readily destroyed by the impurity of high density. In comparison, the superfluidity in unitary and BEC regimes is relatively more robust.
We investigate the crossover from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) state of weakly-bound Cooper pairs to the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) of strongly-bound molecular dimers in a gas of ultracold atoms loaded on a two-dimensional optical lattice. By using the the mean-field BCS equations of the emerging Hubbard model and the concept of off-diagonal-long-range-order for fermions we calculate analytically and numerically the pair binding energy, the energy gap and the condensate fraction of Cooper pairs as a function of interaction strength and filling fractor of atoms in the lattice at zero…
This review is written at the time of the twentieth anniversary of the discovery of high temperature superconductors, which, nearly coincides with the important discovery of the superfluid phases of ultracold trapped fermionic atoms. We show how these two subjects have much in common. Both have been addressed from the perspective of the BCS-Bose Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover scenario, which is designed to treat short coherence length superfluids with transition temperatures which are "high", with respect to the Fermi energy. A generalized mean field treatment of BCS-BEC crossover at ge…
We investigate the phase diagram and the BCS-BEC crossover of a homogeneous three-component ultracold Fermi gas with a U(3) invariant attractive interaction. We show that the system at sufficiently low temperatures exhibits population imbalance, as well as fermionic pairing. We describe the crossover in this system, connecting the weakly interacting BCS regime of the partially population-imbalanced fermion pairing state and the BEC limit with three weakly interacting species of molecules, including pairing fluctuations within a t-matrix calculation of the particle self-energies.
Ultracold atomic gases are a powerful tool to experimentally study strongly correlated quantum many-body systems. In particular, ultracold Fermi gases with tunable interactions have allowed to realize the famous BEC-BCS crossover from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of molecules to a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid of weakly bound Cooper pairs. However, large parts of the excitation spectrum of fermionic superfluids in the BEC-BCS crossover are still unexplored. In this work, we use Bragg spectroscopy to measure the full momentum-resolved low-energy excitation spectrum of strongly …
We review the BCS to Bose Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover scenario which is based on the well known crossover generalization of the BCS ground state wavefunction $Ψ_0$. While this ground state has been summarized extensively in the literature, this Review is devoted to less widely discussed issues: understanding the effects of finite temperature, primarily below $T_c$, in a manner consistent with $Ψ_0$. Our emphasis is on the intersection of two important problems: high $T_c$ superconductivity and superfluidity in ultracold fermionic atomic gases. We address the "pseudogap state" in the …
We study the virial relations for ultracold trapped two component Fermi gases in the case of short finite range interactions. Numerical verifications for such relations are reported through the BCS-BEC crossover. As an intermediate step, it is necessary to evaluate the partial derivatives of the many body energy with respect to the inverse of the scattering length and with respect to the interaction range. They are found to have extreme values at the unitary limit. The virial results are used to check the quality of the variational wave function involved in the calculations.
We investigate the specific heat at constant volume $C_V$ in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas above the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$. Within the framework of the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink, we show that this thermodynamic quantity is sensitive to the stability of preformed Cooper pairs. That is, while $C_V(T\gesim T_{\rm c})$ in the unitary regime is remarkably enhanced by {\it metastable} preformed Cooper pairs or pairing fluctuations, it is well described b…
We theoretically investigate magnetic properties of a trapped ultracold Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations within the framework of an extended $T$-matrix approximation (ETMA), as well as effects of a harmonic trap in the local density approximation (LDA), we calculate the local spin susceptibility $χ_{\rm t}(r,T)$ in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region. We show that pairing fluctuations cause non-monotonic temperature dependence of $χ_{\rm t}(r,T)$. Although this behavior looks similar to the spin-gap phenomenon associated with pairing f…
We investigate strong-coupling effects on normal state properties of an ultracold Fermi gas. Within the framework of $T$-matrix approximation in terms of pairing fluctuations, we calculate the single-particle density of states (DOS), as well as the spectral weight, over the entire BCS-BEC crossover region above the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$. Starting from the weak-coupling BCS regime, we show that the so-called pseudogap develops in DOS above $T_{\rm c}$, which becomes remarkable in the crossover region. The pseudogap structure continuously changes into a fully gapped…
We investigate the photoemission-type spectrum in a cold Fermi gas which was recently measured by JILA group [J. T. Stewart {\it et al}., Nature \textbf{454}, 744 (2008)]. This quantity gives us very useful information about single-particle properties in the BCS-BEC crossover. In this letter, including pairing fluctuations within a $T$-matrix theory, as well as effects of a harmonic trap within the local density approximation, we show that spatially inhomogeneous pairing fluctuations due to the trap potential is an important key to understand the observed spectrum. In the crossover region, whi…
We theoretically investigate strong-coupling properties of an ultracold Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover regime in the non-equilibrium steady state, being coupled with two fermion baths. By developing a non-equilibrium strong-coupling theory based on the combined $T$-matrix approximation with the Keldysh Green's function technique, we show that the chemical potential bias applied by the two baths gives rise to the anomalous enhancement of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) type pairing fluctuations (although the system has no spin imbalance), resulting in the re-entrant behavior of the …
We theoretically investigate the shear viscosity $η$ in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas with a Feshbach resonance. Within the framework of the strong-coupling self-consistent $T$-matrix approximation, we examine how a strong pairing interaction associated with a Feshbach resonance affects this transport coefficient, in the normal state above the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$. We show that, while $η$ diverges in both the weak-coupling BCS and strong-coupling BEC limits, it becomes small in the unitary regime. The minimum of $η$ is obtained, not at th…
This article is written as a Lecture given in the 2006 Varenna Summer School on "Ultracold Fermi Gases". Here we present a review of BCS--Bose Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover theory with emphasis on finite temperature effects. We discuss the role of temperature $T$ as it enters a theoretical formalism which is based on the standard BCS-Leggett ground state. We also discuss the role of temperature in the context of experiments ranging from thermometric issues to signatures of superfluidity. Particularly important to this discussion is the novel normal state associated with the crossover r…
The Higgs amplitude mode of the order parameter of an ultracold confined Fermi gas in the BCS regime after a quench of the coupling constant is analyzed theoretically. Characteristic features are a damped oscillation which at a certain transition time changes into a rather irregular dynamics. We compare the numerical solution of the full set of nonlinear equations of motion for the normal and anomalous Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitations with a linearized approximation. In doing so the transition time as well as the difference between resonant systems, i.e., systems where the Fermi energy is …
We theoretically investigate single particle excitations in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein-Condensation) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas. Including strong pairing fluctuations within a $T$-matrix approximation, as well as effects of a harmonic trap potential in the local density approximation, we calculate the local photoemission spectrum in the normal state. Recently, JILA group has measured this quantity in a $^{40}$K Fermi gas, in order to examine homogeneous single-particle properties of this system. Comparing our results with this experiment, we show tha…
We study the superfluid state of atomic Fermi gases using a BCS-BEC crossover theory. Our approach emphasizes non-condensed fermion pairs which strongly hybridize with their (Feshbach-induced) molecular boson counterparts. These pairs lead to pseudogap effects above $T_c$ and non-BCS characteristics below. We discuss how these effects influence the experimental signatures of superfluidity.
We investigate the system of a heavy impurity embedded in a paired two-component Fermi gas at the crossover from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) to a Bardeen--Cooper--Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid via an extension of the functional determinant approach (FDA). FDA is an exact numerical approach applied to study manifestations of Anderson\textquoteright s orthogonality catastrophe (OC) in the system of a static impurity immersed in an ideal Fermi gas. Here, we extend the FDA to a strongly correlated superfluid background described by a BCS mean-field wavefunction. In contrast to the ideal Fermi g…
We investigate the uniform spin susceptibility $χ_{\rm s}$ in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations within the framework of an extended $T$-matrix approximation, we show that $χ_{\rm s}$ exhibits non-monotonic temperature dependence in the normal state. In particular, $χ_{\rm s}$ is suppressed near the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ due to strong pairing fluctuations. To characterize this anomalous behavior, we introduce the spin-gap temperature $T_{\rm s}$ as the temp…
We investigate pseudogap phenomena originating from pairing fluctuations in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of a two-dimensional Fermi gas in a harmonic trap. Including pairing fluctuations within a $T$-matrix theory and effects of a trap within the local density approximation, we calculate the local density of states (LDOS) at the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$. In the weak-coupling regime, we show that the pseudogap already appears in LDOS around the trap center. The spatial region where the pseudogap can be seen in LDOS becomes wider for a strong pairing interaction. We al…
Response functions are central objects in physics. They provide crucial information about the behavior of physical systems, and they can be directly compared with scattering experiments involving particles like neutrons, or photons. Calculations of such functions starting from the many-body Hamiltonian of a physical system are challenging, and extremely valuable. In this paper we focus on the two-dimensional (2D) ultracold Fermi atomic gas which has been realized experimentally. We present an application of the dynamical BCS theory to obtain response functions for different regimes of interact…
We theoretically investigate strong-coupling properties of an ultracold Fermi gas with an orbital Feshbach resonance (OFR). Including tunable pairing interaction associated with an OFR within the framework of the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink (NSR), we examine the occupation of the closed channel. We show that, although the importance of the closed channel is characteristic of the system with an OFR, the occupation number of the closed channel is found to actually be very small at the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$, in the whole BCS (Bardeen…
We report the experimental measurement of the equation of state of a two-dimensional Fermi gas with attractive s-wave interactions throughout the crossover from a weakly coupled Fermi gas to a Bose gas of tightly bound dimers as the interaction strength is varied. We demonstrate that interactions lead to a renormalization of the density of the Fermi gas by several orders of magnitude. We compare our data near the ground state and at finite temperature to predictions for both fermions and bosons from Quantum Monte Carlo simulations and Luttinger-Ward theory. Our results serve as input for inves…
We theoretically investigate excitation properties in the pseudogap regime of a trapped Fermi gas. Using a combined $T$-matrix theory with the local density approximation, we calculate strong-coupling corrections to single-particle local density of states (LDOS), as well as the single-particle local spectral weight (LSW). Starting from the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$, we clarify how the pseudogap structures in these quantities disappear with increasing the temperature. As in the case of a uniform Fermi gas, LDOS and LSW give different pseudogap temperatures $T^*$ and $T…
Recent experimental progresses allow for exploring some important physical quantities of ultracold Fermi gases, such as the compressibility, spin susceptibility, viscosity, optical conductivity and spin diffusivity. Theoretically, these quantities can be evaluated from suitable linear response theories. For BCS superfluid, it has been found that the gauge invariant linear response theories can be fully consistent with some stringent consistency constraints. When the theory is generalized to stronger-than-BCS regime, one may meet serious difficulties to satisfy the gauge invariance conditions. …
The superfluidity and pairing phenomena in ultracold atomic Fermi gases have been of great interest in recent years, with multiple tunable parameters. Here we study the BCS-BEC crossover behavior of balanced two-component Fermi gases in a one-dimensional optical lattice, which is distinct from the simple three-dimensional (3D) continuum and a fully 3D lattice often found in a condensed matter system. We use a pairing fluctuation theory which includes self-consistent feedback effects at finite temperatures, and find widespread pseudogap phenomena beyond the BCS regime. As a consequence of the l…
We investigate magnetic properties and effects of pairing fluctuations in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas. Recently, Liu and Hu, and Parish, pointed out that the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink (NSR), which has been extensively used to successfully clarify various physical properties of cold Fermi gases, unphysically gives negative spin susceptibility in the BCS-BEC crossover region. The same problem is found to also exist in the ordinary non-self-consistent T-matrix approximation. In …
We investigate the condensate density and the condensate fraction of conduction electrons in weak-coupling superconductors by using the BCS theory and the concept of off-diagonal-long-range-order. We discuss the analytical formula of the zero-temperature condensate density of Cooper pairs as a function of Debye frequency and energy gap, and calculate the condensate fraction for some metals. We study the density of Cooper pairs also at finite temperature showing its connection with the gap order parameter and the effects of the electron-phonon coupling. Finally, we analyze similarities and diff…
Using mean-field theory for the Bardeen-Cooper-Schriefer (BCS) to the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover we investigate the ground state thermodynamic properties of an interacting homogeneous Fermi gas. The interatomic interactions modeled through a finite range potential allows us to explore the entire region from weak to strong interacting regimes with no approximations. To exhibit the thermodynamic behavior as a function of the potential parameters in the whole crossover region, we concentrate in studying the contact variable, the thermodynamic conjugate of the inverse of the s-wave s…
We investigate single-particle properties of a mass-imbalanced Fermi gas in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region. In the presence of mass imbalance, we point out that the ordinary $T$-matrix approximation, which has been extensively used to clarify various BCS-BEC crossover physics in the mass-balanced case, unphysically gives a double-valued solution in terms of the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ in the crossover region. To overcome this serious problem, we include higher order strong-coupling corrections beyond the $T$-mat…
Rf spectra and pseudogap in ultracold Fermi gases across the BCS-BEC crossover from pairing fluctuation theory
University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale（合肥微尺度物质科学国家研究中心）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学物理学院）；Shanghai Research Center for Quantum Science（上海量子科学研究中心）；CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics（中国科学院量子信息与量子物理学前沿卓越创新中心）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）
A gas of interacting ultracold fermions can be tuned into a strongly interacting regime using a Feshbach resonance. Here we theoretically study quasiparticle transport in a system of two reservoirs of interacting ultracold fermions on the BCS side of the BCS-BEC crossover coupled weakly via a tunnel junction. Using the generalized BCS theory we calculate the time evolution of the system that is assumed to be initially prepared in a non-equilibrium state characterized by a particle number imbalance or a temperature imbalance. A number of characteristic features like sharp peaks in quasiparticle…
We present a numerical study of the dynamic response of a confined superfluid Fermi gas to a rapid change of the scattering length (i.e., an interaction quench). Based on a fully microscopic time-dependent density-matrix approach within the full Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism that includes a 3D harmonic confinement we simulate and identify the emergence of a Goldstone mode of the BCS gap in a cigar-shaped $^6$Li gas. By analyzing this Goldstone mode over a wide range of parameters, we show that its excitation spectrum is gapless and that its main frequency is not fixed by the trapping potentia…
We investigate magnetic properties and strong coupling corrections in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas. Within the framework of an extended $T$-matrix theory, we calculate the spin susceptibility $χ$ above the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$. In the crossover region, the formation of preformed Cooper pairs is shown to cause a non-monotonic temperature dependence of $χ$, which is similar to the so-called spin-gap phenomenon observed in the under-doped regime of high-$T_{c}$ cuprates. From this beh…
We theoretically assess the conjecture proposed by Kovtun, Son, and Starinets, stating that the ratio $η/s$ of the shear viscosity $η$ to the entropy density $s$ has the lower bound as $η/s\ge\hbar/(4πk_{\mathrm{B}})$. In the normal state of a mass-imbalanced ultracold Fermi gas, consistently including strong-coupling corrections to both $η$ and $s$ within the self-consistent $T$-matrix approximation, we evaluate $η/s$ over the entire BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region, in the presence of mass imbalance. We find that $η/s$ achieves the minimum val…
In this article we study the two-dimensional (2D) ultracold Fermi gas with weak impurity in the framework of mean-field theory where the impurity is introduced through Gaussian fluctuations. We have investigated the role of the impurity by studying the experimentally accessible quantities such as condensate fraction and equation of state of the ultracold systems. Our analysis reveals that, at the crossover the disorder enhances superfluidity, which we attribute to the unique nature of the unitary region and to the dimensional effect.
We theoretically investigate the inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell (FF) superfluidity in a three dimensional atomic Fermi gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling near a broad Feshbach resonance. We show that within mean-field theory the FF superfluid state is always more favorable than the standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid state when an in-plane Zeeman field is applied. We present a qualitative finite-temperature phase diagram near resonance and argue that the predicted FF superfluid is observable with experimentally attainable temperatures (i.e., $T\sim0.2T_{F}$, where $T_{F}$ is the …
We present a pairing fluctuation theory which self-consistently incorporates finite momentum pair excitations in the context of BCS--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover, and we apply this theory to high $T_c$ superconductors and ultracold Fermi gases. There are strong similarities between Fermi gases in the unitary regime and high Tc superconductors. Here we address key issues of common interest, especially the pseudogap. In the Fermi gases we summarize recent experiments including various phase diagrams (with and without population imbalance), as well as evidence for a pseudogap in the…
In this work, we study the BCS-BEC crossover and quantum phase transition in a Fermi gas under Rashba spin-orbit coupling close to a Feshbach resonance. By adopting a two-channel model, we take into account of the closed channel molecules, and show that combined with spin-orbit coupling, a finite background scattering in the open channel can lead to two branches of solution for both the two-body and the many-body ground states. The branching of the two-body bound state solution originates from the avoided crossing between bound states in the open and the closed channels, respectively. For the …
It is argued that the recently observed Fermi liquids in strongly interacting ultracold Fermi gases are adiabatically connected to a projected Fermi gas. This conclusion is reached by constructing a set of Jastrow wavefunctions, following Tan's observations on the structure of the physical Hilbert space [Annals of Physics 323, 2952 (2008)]. The Jastrow projection merely implements the Bethe-Peierls condition on the BCS and Fermi gas wavefunctions. This procedure provides a simple picture of the emergence of Fermi polarons as composite fermions in the normal state of the highly polarized gas. I…
We review recent developments in the field of ultracold atomic Fermi gases. As the cold atom system evolves from BCS to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), the behavior of the thermodynamics, and the particle density profiles evolves smoothly in a way which can be well understood theoretically. In the interesting "unitary" regime, we show that these and other data necessarily requires the introduction of a pseudogap in the fermionic spectrum which exhibits many striking similarities to its counterpart in underdoped high $T_c$ superconductors. We emphasize these similarities, giving an overview o…
We study finite-temperature properties of a two-dimensional superfluid made of ultracold alkali-metal atoms in the BCS-BEC crossover. We investigate the region below the critical temperature $T_{BKT}$ of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition, where there is quasi-condensation, by analyzing the effects of phase and amplitude fluctuations of the order parameter. In particular, we calculate the superfluid fraction, the sound velocity and the quasi-condensate fraction as a function of the temperature and of the binding energy of fermionic pairs.
We theoretically investigate superfluid properties of a two-band gas of $^{173}$Yb Fermi atoms with an orbital Feshbach resonance (OFR). To describe the BCS-BEC crossover region, we include superfluid fluctuations caused by inter-band and intra-band pairing interactions associated with OFR, by extending the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink to the two-band case below the superfluid phase transition temperature; however, effects of an experimentally inaccessible deep bound state are removed, to model a real $^{173}$Yb Fermi gas near OFR. We show that the condensate f…
We theoretically investigate the isothermal compressibility $κ_{T}$ in the normal state of an ultracold Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations, as well as preformed-pair formations, within the framework of the self-consistent $T$-matrix approximation (SCTMA), we evaluate the temperature dependence of this thermodynamic quantity over the entire BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region. While $κ_T$ in the weak-coupling BCS regime is dominated by Fermi atoms near the Fermi surface, correlations between tightly bound Cooper-pair molecules are found to pl…
We discuss the evolution from BCS to Bose superfluidity for ultracold fermions in two-dimensions and in the presence of simultaneous spin-orbit and Zeeman fields. We analyze several thermodynamic properties to characterize different superfluid phases including pressure, compressibility, induced polarization, and spin susceptibility. Furthermore, we compute the momentum distribution and construct topological invariants for each of the superfluid phases.
We investigate the formation of Bose-Einstein condensation and population imbalance in a three-component Fermi superfluid by increasing the U(3) invariant attractive interaction. We consider the system at zero temperature in three dimensions and also in two dimensions. Within the mean-field theory, we derive explicit formulas for number densities, gap order parameter, condensate density and condensate fraction of the uniform system, and analyze them in the crossover from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) state of Cooper pairs to the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) of strongly-bound molecular …
In this paper, we study the effect of population imbalance and its interplay with pairing strength and lattice effect in atomic Fermi gases in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We compute various phase diagrams as the system undergoes BCS-BEC crossover, using the same pairing fluctuation theory as in Part I. We find widespread pseudogap phenomena beyond the BCS regime and intermediate temperature superfluid states for relatively low population imbalances. The Fermi surface topology plays an important role in the behavior of $T_\text{c}$. For large $d$ and/or small $t$, which yield an open Fer…
We discuss the derivation of a low-energy effective field theory of phase (Goldstone) and amplitude (Higgs) modes of the pairing field from a microscopic theory of attractive fermions. The coupled equations for Goldstone and Higgs fields are critically analyzed in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover both in three spatial dimensions and in two spatial dimensions. The crucial role of pair fluctuations is investigated, and the beyond-mean-field Gaussian theory of the BCS-BEC crossover is compared with available experimental data of the two-dimensional u…
We show that single-component fermionic polar molecules confined to a 2D geometry and dressed by a microwave field, may acquire an attractive $1/r^3$ dipole-dipole interaction leading to superfluid p-wave pairing at sufficiently low temperatures even in the BCS regime. The emerging state is the topological $p_x+ip_y$ phase promising for topologically protected quantum information processing. The main decay channel is via collisional transitions to dressed states with lower energies and is rather slow, setting a lifetime of the order of seconds at 2D densities $\sim 10^8$ cm$^{-2}$.
We investigate the effect of optical lattices on the BCS superfluidity by using the Gorkov--Melik-Barkhudarov (GMB) correction for a two-component Fermi gas. We find that the suppression of the order parameter is strongly enhanced by the lattice effects. The predictions made by the GMB corrections are in qualitative and, for the cases studied, quantitative agreement with previous quantum Monte Carlo results. We discuss how the GMB correction extends the validity of the mean-field theory to a wider range of tunable optical lattice systems in different dimensions.
We briefly discuss recent experiments on the BCS-BEC crossover with ultracold alkali-metal atoms both in three-dimensional configurations and two-dimensional ones. Then we analyze the quantum-field-theory formalism used to describe an attractive $D$-dimensional Fermi gas taking into account Gaussian fluctuations. Finally, we apply this formalism to obtain a reliable equation of state of the 2D system at low temperaratures in the BEC regime of the crossover by performing a meaningful dimensional regularization of the divergent zero-point energy of collective bosonic excitations.
The method of functional renormalization is applied to the theoretical investigation of ultracold quantum gases. Flow equations are derived for a Bose gas with approximately pointlike interaction, for a Fermi gas with two (hyperfine) spin components in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover and for a Fermi gas with three components. The solution of the flow equations determine the properties of these systems both in the few-body regime and in thermal equilibrium. For the Bose gas this covers the quantum phase diagram, the condensate and superfluid fra…
Ultracold two-component Fermi gases with a tunable population imbalance have provided an excellent opportunity for studying the exotic Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states, which have been of great interest in condensed matter physics. However, the FFLO states have not been observed experimentally in Fermi gases in three dimensions (3D), possibly due to their small phase space volume and extremely low temperature required for an equal-mass Fermi gas. Here we explore possible effects of mass imbalance, mainly in a $^6$Li--$^{40}$K mixture, on the one-plane-wave FFLO phases for a 3D ho…
The physics of the crossover between weak-coupling Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and strong-coupling Bose-Einstein-condensate (BEC) limits gives a unified framework of quantum bound (superfluid) states of interacting fermions. This crossover has been studied in the ultracold atomic systems, but is extremely difficult to be realized for electrons in solids. Recently, the superconducting semimetal FeSe with a transition temperature $T_{\rm c}=8.5$ K has been found to be deep inside the BCS-BEC crossover regime. Here we report experimental signatures of preformed Cooper pairing in FeSe below $T…
This paper gives a survey of a diagrammatic approach for fermionic pairing fluctuations, which are relevant to the BCS-BEC crossover realized with ultracold Fermi gases. Emphasis will be given to the physical intuition about the relevant physical processes that can be associated with this approach. Specific results will be presented for thermodynamic and dynamical quantities, where a critical comparison with alternative diagrammatic approaches will also be attempted.
BCS-BEC crossover in trapped one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard chains: entanglement and correlation signatures from DMRG and effective-pairing theory
Charles University（查理大学）；São Paulo State University (UNESP)（圣保罗州立大学）；The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)（阿卜杜斯·萨拉姆国际理论物理中心）；Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology（冲绳科学技术大学院大学）；Universidade Federal Fluminense（弗鲁米嫩塞联邦大学）
We study the zero-temperature grand potential of a three-dimensional superfluid made of ultracold fermionic alkali-metal atoms in the BCS-BEC crossover. In particular, we analyze the zero-point energy of both fermionic single-particle excitations and bosonic collective excitations. The bosonic elementary excitations, which are crucial to obtain a reliable equation of state in the BEC regime, are obtained with a low-momentum expansion up to the forth order of the quadratic (Gaussian) action of the fluctuating pairing field. By performing a cutoff regularization and renormalization of Gaussian f…
We investigate the Bose-Einstein condensation of fermionic pairs in three different superfluid systems: ultracold and dilute atomic gases, bulk neutron matter, and neutron stars. In the case of dilute gases made of fermionic atoms the average distance between atoms is much larger than the effective radius of the inter-atomic potential. Here the condensation of fermionic pairs is analyzed as a function of the s-wave scattering length, which can be tuned in experiments by using the technique of Feshbach resonances from a small and negative value (corresponding to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (B…
Quantum-size oscillations of the basic physical characteristics of a confined fermionic condensate are a well-known phenomenon. Its conventional understanding is based on the single-particle physics, whereby the oscillations follow the size-dependent changes in the single-particle density of states. Here we present a study of a cigar-shaped ultracold superfluid Fermi gas, which demonstrates an important many-body aspect of the quantum-size effects, overlooked previously. The many-body physics is revealed in the atypical crossover from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to the Bose-…
