BCS and BEC p-wave pairing in Bose-Fermi gases

The pairing of fermionic atoms in a mixture of atomic fermion and boson gases at zero temperature is investigated. The attractive interaction between fermions, that can be induced by density fluctuations of the bosonic background, can give rise to a superfluid phase in the Fermi component of the mixture. The atoms of both species are assumed to be in only one internal state, so that the pairing of fermions is effective only in odd-l channels. No assumption about the value of the ratio between the Fermi velocity and the sound velocity in the Bose gas is made in the derivation of the energy gap equation. The gap equation is solved without any particular ansatz for the pairing field or the effective interaction. The p-wave superfluidity is studied in detail. By increasing the strength and/or decreasing the range of the effective interaction a transition of the fermion pairing regime, from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer state to a system of tightly bound couples can be realized. These composite bosons behave as a weakly-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate.     

Vortices in superfluid fermi gases through the BEC to BCS crossover

We have analyzed a single vortex at T=0 in a 3D superfluid atomic Fermi gas across a Feshbach resonance. On the BCS side, the order parameter varies on two scales: k(F)(-1)and the coherence length xi, while only variation on the scale of xi is seen away from the BCS limit. The circulating current has a peak value jmax which is a nonmonotonic function of 1/k(F)a(s) implying a maximum critical velocity approximately v(F) at unitarity. The number of fermionic bound states in the core decreases as we move from the BCS to the BEC regime. Remarkably, a bound state branch persists even on the BEC side reflecting the composite nature of bosonic molecules.     

Pairing superfluidity in spin-orbit coupled ultracold Fermi gases

We review some recent progresses on the study of ultracold Fermi gases with synthetic spin-orbit coupling.In particular,we focus on the pairing superfluidity in these systems at zero temperature.Recent studies have shown that different forms of spin-orbit coupling in various spatial dimensions can lead to a wealth of novel pairing superfluidity.A common theme of these variations is the emergence of new pairing mechanisms which are direct results of spin-orbit-coupling-modified single-particle dispersion spectra.As different configurations can give rise to single-particle dispersion spectra with drastic differences in symmetry,spin dependence and low-energy density of states,spin-orbit coupling is potentially a powerful tool of quantum control,which,when combined with other available control schemes in ultracold atomic gases,will enable us to engineer novel states of matter.     

Signatures of superfluidity for Feshbach-resonant Fermi gases

We consider atomic Fermi gases where Feshbach resonances can be used to study the whole BCS-Bose-Einstein condensate crossover. We show how a probing field transferring atoms out of the superfluid can be used to detect the onset of the superfluid transition in the high-T(c) and BCS regimes. The number of transferred atoms, as a function of the energy given by the probing field, peaks at the gap energy. The shape of the peak is asymmetric due to the single particle excitation gap. Since the excitation gap also includes a pseudogap contribution, the asymmetry alone is not a signature of superfluidity. The incoherent nature of the noncondensed pairs leads to broadening of the peak. The broadening decays below the critical temperature, causing a drastic increase in the asymmetry. This provides a signature of the transition.     

Probing anisotropic superfluidity in atomic Fermi gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Motivated by the prospect of realizing a Fermi gas with a synthetic non-Abelian gauge field, we investigate theoretically a strongly interacting Fermi gas in the presence of a Rashba spin-orbit coupling. As the twofold spin degeneracy is lifted by spin-orbit interaction, bound pairs with mixed singlet and triplet components emerge, leading to an anisotropic superfluid. We calculate the relevant physical quantities, such as the momentum distribution, the single-particle spectral function, and the spin structure factor, that characterize the system.     

Ultra high temperature superfluidity in ultracold atomic Fermi gases with mixed dimensionality

It has been an important goal to achieve higher or even room temperature superconductivity,since the discovery of high Tc superconductors in 1986,with a typical maximum transition temperature Tc of around 95 K at ambien pressure[1]or up to 164 K for the Hg-based cuprates under high pressure[2].The typical Tc/TF is only around 0.05 or less,where TF denotes the Fermi temperature.There have been a few other families of superconductors,including the iron-based[3],heavy fermion[4]and organic superconductors[5].Their maximum attainable Tc/TF has not been able to exceed that of the cuprates.Other notable superconductors include the recently discovered H2S with a record high Tc=203 K under an enormous high pressure of 90 GPa[6],and the monolayer FeSe/SrTiO3 superconductors with a gap opening temperature up to 100 K[7].     

BCS–BEC crossover in one-dimensional integrable model

The crossover from Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid with singlet pairs to Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of molecules is studied in one dimension. By use of the nested Bethe ansatz method, the ground state properties of spin-1/2 fermions interacting through attractive δ-function are analyzed explicitly for strong and weak couplings. Based on those results, we confirm a crossover picture, that is, in the BEC regime (strong couplings) the system is described by molecules with weak repulsion while in the BCS regime (weak couplings) it behaves as the weakly attractive fermions.     

The effect of the energy bias on self-trapping of Fermi superfluid gases in deep BEC regime

Research on the growth of online tagging systems not only is interesting in its own right, but also yields insights for website management and semantic web analysis. Traditional models that describing the growth of online systems can be divided between linear and nonlinear versions. Linear models, including the BA model [A.L. Barabasi, R. Albert, Science 286, 509 (1999)], assume that the average activity of users is a constant independent of population. Hence the total activity is a linear function of population. On the contrary, nonlinear models suggest that the average activity is affected by the size of the population and the total activity is a nonlinear function of population. In the current study, supporting evidences for the nonlinear growth assumption are obtained from data on Internet users' tagging behavior. A power law relationship between the number of new tags (F) and the population (P), which can be expressed as F~P ^γ (γ > 1), is found. I call this pattern accelerating growth and find it relates the to time-invariant heterogeneity in individual activities. I also show how a greater heterogeneity leads to a faster growth.     

Resonance superfluidity in a quantum degenerate Fermi gas

We consider the superfluid phase transition that arises when a Feshbach resonance pairing occurs in a dilute Fermi gas. We apply our theory to consider a specific resonance in potassium ((40)K), and find that for achievable experimental conditions, the transition to a superfluid phase is possible at the high critical temperature of about 0.5T(F). Observation of superfluidity in this regime would provide the opportunity to experimentally study the crossover from the superfluid phase of weakly coupled fermions to the Bose-Einstein condensation of strongly bound composite bosons.     

Induced P-wave superfluidity in asymmetric fermi gases

We show that two new intraspecies P-wave superfluid phases appear in two-component asymmetric Fermi systems with short-range S-wave interactions. In the BEC limit, phonons of the molecular BEC induce P-wave superfluidity in the excess fermions. In the BCS limit, density fluctuations induce P-wave superfluidity in both the majority and the minority species. These phases may be realized in experiments with spin-polarized Fermi gases.     

Signatures of resonance superfluidity in a quantum Fermi gas

We predict a direct and observable signature of the superfluid phase in a quantum Fermi gas, in a temperature regime already accessible in current experiments. We apply the theory of resonance superfluidity to a gas confined in a harmonic potential and demonstrate that a significant increase in density will be observed in the vicinity of the trap center.     

Evidence for superfluidity in a resonantly interacting Fermi gas

We observe collective oscillations of a trapped, degenerate Fermi gas of 6Li atoms at a magnetic field just above a Feshbach resonance, where the two-body physics does not support a bound state. The gas exhibits a radial breathing mode at a frequency of 2837(05) Hz, in excellent agreement with the frequency of nu(H) identical with sqrt[10nu(x)nu(y)/3]=2830(20) Hz predicted for a hydrodynamic Fermi gas with unitarity-limited interactions. The measured damping times and frequencies are inconsistent with predictions for both the collisionless mean field regime and for collisional hydrodynamics. These observations provide the first evidence for superfluid hydrodynamics in a resonantly interacting Fermi gas.     

Metastability in spin-polarized Fermi gases

We study the role of particle transport and evaporation on the phase separation of an ultracold, spin-polarized atomic Fermi gas. We show that the previously observed deformation of the superfluid paired core is a result of evaporative depolarization of the superfluid due to a combination of enhanced evaporation at the center of the trap and the inhibition of spin transport at the normal-superfluid phase boundary. These factors contribute to a nonequilibrium jump in the chemical potentials at the phase boundary. Once formed, the deformed state is highly metastable, persisting for times of up to 2?s.     

Tuning p-wave interactions in an ultracold Fermi gas of atoms

We have measured a p-wave Feshbach resonance in a single-component, ultracold Fermi gas of 40K atoms. We have used this resonance to enhance the normally suppressed p-wave collision cross section to values larger than the background s-wave cross section between 40K atoms in different spin states. In addition to the modification of two-body elastic processes, the resonance dramatically enhances three-body inelastic collisional loss.     

Achieving a BCS transition in an atomic Fermi gas

We consider a gas of cold fermionic atoms having two spin components with interactions characterized by their s-wave scattering length a. At positive scattering length the atoms form weakly bound bosonic molecules which can be evaporatively cooled to undergo Bose-Einstein condensation, whereas at negative scattering length BCS pairing can take place. It is shown that, by adiabatically tuning the scattering length a from positive to negative values, one may transform the molecular Bose-Einstein condensate into a highly degenerate atomic Fermi gas, with the ratio of temperature to Fermi temperature T/T(F) approximately 10(-2). The corresponding critical final value of k(F)/a/, which leads to the BCS transition, is found to be about one-half, where k(F) is the Fermi momentum.