Framework for Polarized Superfluid Fermion Systems
Aurel Bulgac
备注：
13 pages, 5 figures, fix typos, inconsistent notations, figure labels, and a couple of numerical errors in Figs. 4b and 5a, added to additional panels to Fig. 5, extended text and references
I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of several procedures, some known and some new, for constructing stationary states within the mean field approximation for a system with pairing correlations and unequal numbers spin-up and spin-down fermions, using the two chemical potentials framework. One procedure in particular appears to have significant physics advantages over previously suggested in the literature computational frameworks. Moreover, this framework is applicable to study strongly polarized superfluid fermion systems with arbitrarily large polarizations and with arbitrary total particle numbers. These methods are equally applicable to normal systems.
By applying the recently proposed antisymmetric superfluid local density approximation (ASLDA) to strongly interacting polarized atomic gases at unitarity in very elongated traps, we find families of Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) type of solutions with prominent transversal oscillation of pairing potential. These LO states coexist with a superfluid state having a smooth pairing potential. We suggest that the LO phase could be accessible experimentally by increasing adiabatically the trap aspect ratio. We show that the local asymmetry effects contained in ASLDA do not support a deformed superfluid co…
We non-perturbatively study pairing in the high-temperature regime of polarized unitary two-component Fermi gases by extracting the pair-momentum distribution and shot-noise correlations. Whereas the pair-momentum distribution allows us to analyze the propagation of pairs composed of one spin-up and one spin-down fermion, shot-noise correlations provide us with a tomographic insight into pairing correlations around the Fermi surfaces associated with the two species. Assuming that the dominant pairing patterns right above the superfluid transition also govern the formation of condensates in the…
We explore novel features of a nonrelativistic fermionic superfluid in which the pairing interaction includes a contribution from the exchange of a dynamical bosonic mode. We show that the dynamical boson exchange (DBE), which causes a retarded pairing interaction and thus violates the Galilean invariance of the fermion sector, generically leads to a quantum reduction of the superfluid density and hence a nonzero normal fraction even at zero temperature. For spin-singlet pairing, the DBE also leads to a nonvanishing spin susceptibility at zero temperature, providing a mechanism for the coexist…
The interior of a neutron star is expected to be occupied by a neutron $^3P_2$ superfluid, which is the condensate of spin-triplet $p$-wave Cooper pairs of neutrons with total angular momentum $J=2$. Here we investigate the thermodynamic stability of $^3P_2$ superfluids in a neutron-star interior under a strong magnetic field. Using the theory incorporating the finite size correction of neutron Fermi surface, we show that the spin-polarized phases of $^3P_2$ superfluids, the magnetized biaxial nematic phase and the ferromagnetic phase, appear in high temperatures and high magnetic fields. Thes…
We show that in a dilute Fermionic superfluid, when the Fermions interact with an infinite scattering length, a vortex state is characterized by a strong density depletion along the vortex core. This feature can make a direct visualization of vortices in Fermionic superfluids possible.
We propose a phase diagram for a cold polarized atomic Fermi gas with zero-range interaction. We identify four main phases in the plane of density and polarization: the superfluid phase, the normal phase, the gapless superfluid phase, and the modulated phase. We argue that there exists a Lifshitz point at the junction of the normal, the gapless superfluid, and the modulated phases, and a splitting point where the superfluid, the gapless superfluid, and the modulated phases meet. We show that the physics near the splitting point is universal and derive an effective field theory describing it. W…
Superfluidity in fermionic systems originates from pairing of fermions, and Bose condensation of these so-called Cooper pairs. The Cooper pairs are usually made of fermions of different species; for example in superconductors they are pairs of electrons with opposite spins. Thus the most favorable situation for pairing and superfluidity is when the two species of fermions that form pairs have the same density. This paper studies the possible superfluid states when the two pairing species have different densities, and show that the resultant states have remarkable similarities to the phases of …
Motivated by recent developments on cold atom traps and high density QCD we consider fermionic systems composed of two particle species with different densities. We argue that a mixed phase composed of normal and superfluid components is the energetically favored ground state. We suggest how this phase separation can be used as a probe of fermion superfluidity in atomic traps.
The first detailed comparison between ab initio calculations of finite fermionic superfluid systems, performed recently by Chang and Bertsch [Phys. Rev. A 76, 021603(R), (2007)] and by von Stecher, Greene and Blume [e-print arXiv:00705:0671v1], and the extension of the density functional theory Superfluid Local Density Approximation (SLDA) is presented. It is shown that SLDA reproduces the total energies, number density distributions in inhomogeneous systems along with the energy of the normal state in homogeneous systems. Unlike the Kohn-Sham LDA, in SLDA the effective fermion mass differs fr…
Two issues are treated in this work: (i) the generic fact that if a fermionic superfluid in the BCS regime overflows from a narrow container into a much wider one, pairing is much suppressed at the overflow point. Physical examples where this feature may play an important role are discussed (ii) A Thomas-Fermi (TF) approach to inhomogeneous superfluid Fermi-systems is presented and shown that it works well in cases where the Local Density Approximation (LDA) breaks down.
We have studied, in a fully non-perturbative calculation, a dilute system of spin 1/2 interacting fermions, characterized by an infinite scattering length at finite temperatures. Various thermodynamic properties and the condensate fraction were calculated and we have also determined the critical temperature for the superfluid-normal phase transition in this regime. The thermodynamic behavior appears as a rather surprising and unexpected melange of fermionic and bosonic features. The thermal response of a spin 1/2 fermion at the BCS-BEC crossover should be classified as that of a new type of su…
We construct a Galilean invariant low-energy effective field theory of boson-fermion mixtures and study bound fermion states on a vortex of boson superfluid. We derive a simple criterion to determine for which values of the fermion angular momentum l there exist an infinite number of bound energy levels. We apply our formalism to two boson-fermion mixed systems: the dilute solution of He3 in He4 superfluid and the cold polarized Fermi gas on the BEC side of the "splitting point". For the He3-He4 mixture, we determine parameters of the effective theory from experimental data as functions of pre…
In this chapter we review recent experimental and theoretical work on various novel superfluid phases in fermion systems, that result from pairing fermions of different species with unequal densities. After briefly reviewing existing experimental work in superconductors subject to a strong magnetic field and trapped cold fermionic atom systems, we discuss how to characterize the possible pairing phases based on their symmetry properties, and the structure/topology of the Fermi surface(s) formed by the unpaired fermions due to the density imbalance. We also discuss possible experimental probes …
We discuss the zero temperature phase diagram of a dilute gas with three fermionic species. We make use of solvable limits to conjecture the behavior of the system in the "unitary" regions. The physics of the Thomas-Efimov effect plays a role in these considerations. We find a rich phase diagram with superfluid, gapless superfluid and inhomogeneous phases with different symmetry breaking patterns. We then discuss one particular possible experimental implementation in a system of ^6Li atoms and the possible phases arising in this system as an external magnetic field is varied across three overl…
The superfluid phase diagrams of a two-dimensional cold polarized Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover are systematically and analytically investigated. In the BCS-Leggett mean field theory, the transition from unpolarized superfluid phase to normal phase is always of first order. For a homogeneous system, the two critical Zeeman fields and the critical population imbalance are analytically determined in the whole coupling parameter region, and the superfluid-normal mixed phase is shown to be the ground state between the two critical fields. The density profile in the presence of a harmonic trap…
We derive the energy of the surface between the normal and superfluid components of a mixed phase of a system composed of two particle species with different densities. The surface energy is obtained by the integration of the free energy density in the interface between the two phases. We show that the mixed phase remains as the favored ground state over the gapless phase in weak coupling. We find that the surface energy effects emerge only at strong coupling.
