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.     

Degeneracies in trapped two-component fermi gases

We report on previously unobserved intersystem degeneracies in two-component equal-mass Fermi gases with interspecies zero-range interactions under isotropic harmonic confinement. Over the past 10 years, two-component Fermi gases consisting of n_{1} spin-up and n_{2} spin-down atoms with interspecies zero-range interactions have become a paradigm for modeling condensed matter systems, nuclear matter, and neutron matter. We show that the eigenenergies of the (n_{1}+1,n_{2}-1) system are degenerate with the eigenenergies of the (n_{1},n_{2}) system for any s-wave scattering length a_{s}, including infinitely large, positive, and negative a_{s}. The existence of the intersystem degeneracies is demonstrated explicitly for few-body systems with n_{1}+n_{2}=4, 5, and 6. The degeneracies and associated symmetries are explained within a group theoretical framework.     

Pairing fluctuations in trapped fermi gases

We examine the contribution of pairing fluctuations to the superfluid order parameter for harmonically trapped atomic Fermi gases in the BCS regime. In the limit of small systems we consider, both analytically and numerically, their space and temperature dependence. We predict a parity effect, i.e., that pairing fluctuations show a maximum or a minimum at the center of the trap, depending on the value of the last occupied shell being even or odd. We propose to detect pairing fluctuations by measuring the density-density correlation function after a ballistic expansion of the gas.     

Atom interferometry with trapped fermi gases

We realize an interferometer with an atomic Fermi gas trapped in an optical lattice under the influence of gravity. The single-particle interference between the eigenstates of the lattice results in macroscopic Bloch oscillations of the sample. The absence of interactions between fermions allows a time-resolved study of many periods of the oscillations, leading to a sensitive determination of the acceleration of gravity. The experiment proves the superiority of noninteracting fermions with respect to bosons for precision interferometry and offers a way for the measurement of forces with microscopic spatial resolution.     

Sarma phase in trapped unbalanced fermi gases

We consider a trapped unbalanced Fermi gas at nonzero temperatures where the superfluid Sarma phase is stable. We determine, in particular, the phase boundaries between the superfluid, normal, and phase-separated regions of the trapped unbalanced Fermi mixture. We show that the physics of the Sarma phase is sufficient to understand the recent observations of Zwierlein et al. [Science 311, 492 (2006); Nature (London) 442, 54 (2006)] and indicate how the apparent contradictions between this experiment and the experiment of Partridge et al. [Science 311, 503 (2006)] may be resolved.     

Spectroscopy of superfluid pairing in atomic fermi gases

We study the dynamic structure factor for density and spin within the crossover from BCS superfluidity of atomic fermions to the Bose-Einstein condensation of molecules. Both structure factors are experimentally accessible via Bragg spectroscopy and allow for the identification of the pairing mechanism: the spin structure factor allows for the determination of the two particle gap, while the collective sound mode in the density structure reveals the superfluid state.     

Dynamics of dark solitons in a trapped superfluid fermi gas

We study soliton oscillations in a trapped superfluid Fermi gas across the Bose-Einstein condensate to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BEC-BCS) crossover. We derive an exact equation for the oscillation period in terms of observable quantities, which we confirm by solving the time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. Hence we reveal the appearance and dynamics of solitons across the crossover, and show that the period dramatically increases as the soliton becomes shallower on the BCS side of the resonance. Finally, we propose an experimental protocol to test our predictions.     

Density profiles of strongly interacting trapped fermi gases

We study density profiles in trapped fermionic gases, near Feshbach resonances, at all T< or =Tc and in the near Bose-Einstein condensation and unitary regimes. For the latter, we characterize and quantify the generally neglected contribution from noncondensed Cooper pairs. As a consequence of these pairs, our profiles are rather well fit to a Thomas-Fermi (TF) functional form, and equally well fit to experimental data. Our work lends support to the notion that TF fits can be used in an experimental context to obtain information about the temperature.     

Landau-Zener tunneling of fermi superfluid gases in deep BEC regime

The dynamical phenomena of the Landau–Zener tunneling of the superfluid fermi gases in a double-well potential in deep BEC regime is investigated in this paper. The contribution of the higher order term representing the lowest approximation of beyond mean field corrections is considered. By using the corresponding classical Hamiltonian of the system, the fixed points and adiabatic energy levels are studied. The critical parameter for the number of fixed points evolution from two to four is obtained. For the nonlinear Landau–Zener tunneling, the tunneling probability with sweeping rate α$\alpha$ is numerically given. At the adiabatic limit, the tunneling probability is not zero in certain regime, while it goes to zero in the other regime. Exponential dependence of the transition probability on the sweeping rate α$\alpha$ in certain case is obtained.     

Influence of induced interactions on the superfluid transition in dilute fermi gases

We calculate the effects of induced interactions on the transition temperature to the BCS state in dilute Fermi gases. For a pure Fermi system with two species having equal densities, the transition temperature is suppressed by a factor (4e)(1/3) approximately 2.2, and for nu fermion species, the transition temperature is increased by a factor (4e)(nu/3-1) approximately 2.2(nu-3). For mixtures of fermions and bosons the exchange of boson density fluctuations gives rise to an attractive interaction, and we estimate the increase of the transition temperature due to this effect.     

Rapidly rotating fermi gases

We show that the density profile of a Fermi gas in rapidly rotating potential will develop prominent features reflecting the underlying Landau-level-like energy spectrum. Depending on the aspect ratio of the trap, these features can be a sequence of ellipsoidal volumes or a sequence of quantized steps.     

Slow light in degenerate fermi gases

We investigate the effect of slow light propagating in a degenerate atomic Fermi gas. In particular we use slow light with an orbital angular momentum. We present a microscopic theory for the interplay between light and matter and show how the slow light can provide an effective magnetic field acting on the electrically neutral fermions, a direct analogy of the free electron gas in an uniform magnetic field. As an example we illustrate how the corresponding de Haas-van Alphen effect can be seen in a gas of neutral atomic fermions.     

Quasi-two-dimensional superfluid fermionic gases

We study a quasi-two-dimensional superfluid Fermi gas where the confinement in the third direction is due to a strong harmonic trapping. We investigate the behavior of such a system when the chemical potential is varied and find strong modifications of the superfluid properties due to the discrete harmonic oscillator states. We show that such quasi-two-dimensional behavior can be created and observed with current experimental capabilities.     

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.     

Resonant spin-changing collisions in spinor fermi gases

The compensation of quadratic Zeeman effect and trap energy in high-spin fermions is shown to lead to resonances in the spin-changing collisions that are typically absent in spinor condensates and spin-1/2 fermions. We study these resonances in lattice fermions, showing that they permit the targeting of a particular spin-changing channel while suppressing the rest and the creation of magnetically insensitive superpositions of many-body states with entangled spin and trap degrees of freedom. Finally, the intersite tunneling may lead to a quantum phase transition described by a quantum Ising model.     

New effective interaction for the trapped fermi gas

We apply the configuration-interaction method to calculate the spectra of two-component Fermi systems in a harmonic trap, studying the convergence of energies at the unitary interaction limit. We find that for a fixed regularization of the two-body interaction the convergence is exponential or better in the truncation parameter of the many-body space. However, the conventional regularization is found to have poor convergence in the regularization parameter, with an error that scales as a low negative power of this parameter. We propose a new regularization of the two-body interaction that produces exponential convergence for systems of three and four particles. We estimate the ground-state energy of the four-particle system to be (5.045 +/- 0.003) variant Planck's constant over 2 pi omega.     

The quantum pressure correction to the excitation spectrum of the trapped superfluid Fermi gases in a BEC-BCS crossover

Using quantum hydrodynamic approaches, we study the quantum pressure correction to the collective excitation spectrum of the interacting trapped superfluid Fermi gases in the BEC-BCS crossover. Based on a phenomenological equation of state, we derive hydrodynamic equations of the system in the whole BEC-BCS crossover regime. Beyond the Thomas--Fermi approximation, expressions of the frequency corrections of collective modes for both spherical and axial symmetric traps excited in the BEC-BCS crossover are given explicitly. The corrections of the eigenfrequencies due to the quantum pressure and their dependence on the inverse interaction strength, anisotropic parameter and particle numbers of the condensate are discussed in detail.     

Bose-einstein condensation in trapped dipolar gases

We discuss Bose-Einstein condensation in a trapped gas of bosonic particles interacting dominantly via dipole-dipole forces. We find that in this case the mean-field interparticle interaction and, hence, the stability diagram are governed by the trapping geometry. Possible physical realizations include ultracold heteronuclear molecules, or atoms with laser induced electric dipole moments.