Observation of collective atomic recoil motion in a degenerate fermion gas

We demonstrate collective atomic recoil motion with a dilute, ultracold, degenerate fermion gas in a single spin state. By utilizing an adiabatically decompressed magnetic trap with an aspect ratio different from that of the initial trap, a momentum-squeezed fermion cloud is achieved. With a single pump pulse of the proper polarization, we observe, for the first time, multiple wave-mixing processes that result in distinct collective atomic recoil motion modes in a degenerate fermion cloud. Contrary to the case with Bose condensates, no pump-laser detuning asymmetry is present.     

Nature of correlations in the atomic limit of the boson fermion model

Using the equation of motion technique for Green's functions we derive the exact solution of the boson fermion model in the atomic limit. Both (fermion and boson) subsystems are characterised by the effective three level excitation spectra. We compute the spectral weights of these states and analyse them in detail with respect to all possible parameters. Although in the atomic limit there is no true phase transition, we notice that upon decreasing temperature some pairing correlations start to appear. Their intensity is found to be proportional to the depleted amount of the fermion nonbonding state. We notice that pairing correlations behave in a fashion observed for the optimally doped and underdoped high T_c superconductors. We try to identify which parameter of the boson fermion model can possibly correspond to the actual doping level. This study clarifies the origin of pairing correlations within the boson fermion model and may elucidate how to apply it for interpretation of experimental data. Received 31 January 2003 / Received in final form 18 March 2003 Published online 23 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: doman@kft.umcs.lublin.pl     

Superfluid and insulating phases of fermion mixtures in optical lattices

The ground state phase diagram of fermion mixtures in optical lattices is analyzed as a function of interaction strength, fermion filling factor, and tunneling parameters. In addition to standard superfluid, phase-separated or coexisting superfluid -- excess-fermion phases found in homogeneous or harmonically trapped systems, fermions in optical lattices have several insulating phases, including a molecular Bose-Mott insulator (BMI), a Fermi-Pauli (band) insulator (FPI), a phase-separated BMI-FPI mixture or a Bose-Fermi checkerboard (BFC). The molecular BMI phase is the fermion mixture counterpart of the atomic BMI found in atomic Bose systems, the BFC or BMI-FPI phases exist in Bose-Fermi mixtures, and lastly the FPI phase is particular to the Fermi nature of the constituent atoms of the mixture.     

Fermion superfluid with hybridized s-and p-wave pairings

Ever since the pioneering work of Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer in the 1950 s, exploring novel pairing mechanisms for fermion superfluids has become one of the central tasks in modern physics. Here, we investigate a new type of fermion superfluid with hybridized s-and p-wave pairings in an ultracold spin-1/2 Fermi gas. Its occurrence is facilitated by the co-existence of comparable s-and p-wave interactions, which is realizable in a two-component 40 K Fermi gas with close-by s-and p-wave Feshbach resonances. The hybridized superfluid state is stable over a considerable parameter region on the phase diagram, and can lead to intriguing patterns of spin densities and pairing fields in momentum space. In particular, it can induce a phase-locked p-wave pairing in the fermion species that has no p-wave interactions. The hybridized nature of this novel superfluid can also be confirmed by measuring the s-and p-wave contacts, which can be extracted from the high-momentum tail of the momentum distribution of each spin component. These results enrich our knowledge of pairing superfluidity in Fermi systems, and open the avenue for achieving novel fermion superfluids with multiple partial-wave scatterings in cold atomic gases.     

Vacuum polarization for atomic quasienergy states

Vacuum polarization for an atomic system in the laser field is considered in the representation of quasienergy states as a radiation correction to the quasienergy. It is shown that laser effects are absent in the polarization fermion loop in case of resonant mixing of atomic levels. Perspectivity of investigation of laser effects in vacuum polarization of muonic atoms is discussed.     

Information-Theoretic Features of Many Fermion Systems: An Exploration Based on Exactly Solvable Models

Finite quantum many fermion systems are essential for our current understanding of Nature. They are at the core of molecular, atomic, and nuclear physics. In recent years, the application of information and complexity measures to the study of diverse types of many-fermion systems has opened a line of research that elucidates new aspects of the structure and behavior of this class of physical systems. In this work we explore the main features of information and information-based complexity indicators in exactly soluble many-fermion models of the Lipkin kind. Models of this kind have been extremely useful in shedding light on the intricacies of quantum many body physics. Models of the Lipkin kind play, for finite systems, a role similar to the one played by the celebrated Hubbard model of solid state physics. We consider two many fermion systems and show how their differences can be best appreciated by recourse to information theoretic tools. We appeal to information measures as tools to compare the structural details of different fermion systems. We will discover that few fermion systems are endowed by a much larger complexity-degree than many fermion ones. The same happens with the coupling-constants strengths. Complexity augments as they decrease, without reaching zero. Also, the behavior of the two lowest lying energy states are crucial in evaluating the system’s complexity.     

Composite boson dominance in many-fermion systems

I recently proposed a method of bosonization based on the use of coherent states of fermion composites, whose validity was restricted to smooth structure functions. In the present paper I remove this limitation and derive results which hold for arbitrary interactions and structure functions. The method respects all symmetries and in particular fermion number conservation. It reproduces exactly the results of the pairing model of atomic nuclei and of the BCS model of superconductivity in the number conserving form of the quasi-chemical equilibrium theory.     

Phase separation in asymmetrical fermion superfluids

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.     

Direct imaging of spatially modulated superfluid phases in atomic fermion systems

It is proposed that the spatially modulated superfluid phase, or the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state could be observed in resonant fermion atomic condensates which are realized recently. We examine optimal experimental setups to achieve it by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation for both idealized one-dimensional and realistic three-dimensional cases. The spontaneous modulation of this superfluid is shown to be directly imaged as the density profiles either by optical absorption or by Stern-Gerlach experiments.     

Fermion gases in magnetic fields: a semiclassical treatment

The study of quantum degenerate gases has received much interest in these last years essentially thanks to the extremely important experimental results of the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms and, very recently, of almost complete degeneracy of atomic fermion gases. Here we want to present the results of a semi-analytical method for the study of an interacting degenerate fermion gas based on semiclassical kinetic theory; special care has been devoted to the study of a rotating electron gas, in a cylindrically symmetrical configuration, radially confined by a uniform magnetic field. The model will lead to a particular Thomas-Fermi equation which is generalized to take into account finite temperature and average velocity of the gas, and which is further developed to consider the effects of external fields. Received 10 March 2000     

Atomic hydrogen cooling under adiabatic expansion in a magnetic trap

A new method for cooling atomic hydrogen down to 100 μK or below is suggested. The method exploits the unique properties of atomic hydrogen, which are the following: atomic hydrogen does not condense at temperatures as low as 20 μK and cannot be heated by IR radiation in the absence of atom-wall collisions. Therefore, the most efficient and well-known gas cooling technique can be employed, namely, the adiabatic expansion of the volume occupied by the gas (this approach is used in a gas-expansion machine). It is suggested to adiabatically expand the volume of a magnetic trap containing atomic hydrogen.     

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.     

Molecular Kondo resonance in atomic Fermi gases

The usual Kondo effect is associated with the formation of a many-body ground state that contains a quantum-mechanical entanglement between a (localized) fermion and the free fermions. We show, however, that also a bosonic form of the Kondo effect can occur in degenerate atomic Fermi gases near a Feshbach resonance, if the energy of the diatomic molecular level associated with the Feshbach resonance approaches twice the Fermi energy of the atoms.     

Wilson fermions and axion electrodynamics in optical lattices

We show that ultracold Fermi gases in optical superlattices can be used as quantum simulators of relativistic lattice fermions in 3+1 dimensions. By exploiting laser-assisted tunneling, we find an analogue of the so-called naive Dirac fermions, and thus provide a realization of the fermion doubling problem. Moreover, we show how to implement Wilson fermions, and discuss how their mass can be inverted by tuning the laser intensities. In this regime, our atomic gas corresponds to a phase of matter where Maxwell electrodynamics is replaced by axion electrodynamics: a 3D topological insulator.     

Nucleon Isovector Pairing in Nuclei: Microscopic Approach,Boson Representation,and Collective Model

Nucleon pair correlations in atomic nuclei are analyzed within a nuclear microscopic model with residual isovector pairing forces. These are formulated in the boson representation of fermion operators whereby the collective mode of pair excitations can be isolated without restricting the size of the one-particle basis. This method allows one to analyze the fluctuations in the nonsuperfluid phase of nuclear matter, its phase transition to the superfluid phase, and strong pair correlations. The performance of the method is exemplified by numerical results for the nuclei in the vicinity of the doubly magic ⁵⁶Ni nucleus.     

Nuclear and atomic models

A theorem concerning fermion interaction is postulated and applied to the problems of atomic (electronic) and nuclear physics. Model building basedsolely upon the postulate thatadjacent like fermions must be singlet paired accounts for the closed shells ofboth nuclear and atomic structure. The implied antiferromagnetic FCC lattice of protons and neutrons in alternating layers has been found previously to be the lowest-energy solid configuration of nuclear matter (N=P) (Canuto and Chitre, 1974). The buildup of the FCC lattice from a central tetrahedron reproduces all of the shells and subshells of the isotropic harmonic oscillator, which of course is the basis for the shell model. In atomic structure, the singlet pairing of adjacent electrons implies closed-shell structures uniquely at the six noble gases and the three noble metals, Ni, Pd, and Pt. The basis for the postulate concerning fermions is found in terms of classical electrodynamics; it is a microscopic corollary of Biot-Savart's law that parallel currents attract whereas antiparallel currents repel.     

Exact SO(5) symmetry in the spin-3/2 fermionic system

The spin-3/2 fermion models with contact interactions have a generic SO5 symmetry without any fine-tuning of parameters. Its physical consequences are discussed in both the continuum and lattice models. A Monte Carlo algorithm free of the sign problem at any doping and lattice topology is designed when the singlet and quintet interactions satisfy U0< or = U2< or = -3/5 U0 (U0< or = 0), thus making it possible to study different competing orders with high numerical accuracy. This model can be accurately realized in ultracold atomic systems.     

Fermions and bosons in a two-dimensional world

We derive the formal equivalence of a free massless two-dimensional theory and a free massless two-dimensional boson theory constructed from the bilinear products of the self-same fermion theory. The sense of this equivalence is investigated. Using a box normalization, it is found that the fermion states are Glauber coherent states of bosons, where the boson vacuum is the ground state of the charge sector corresponding to the given fermion state. The massless boson is the Goldstone boson and the degenerate vacua are the ground states of the various charge sectors. A complete operator identity between fermion and boson operators can be obtained, but to do this an additional boson operator must be introduced which cannot be defined in terms of bilinear products of the fermion operators. Doing this makes the charge spectrum continuous.     

Natural multiparticle entanglement in a Fermi gas

We investigate multipartite entanglement in a noninteracting fermion gas, as a function of fermion separation, starting from the many particle fermion density matrix. We prove that all multiparticle entanglement can be built only out of two-fermion entanglement. Although from the Pauli exclusion principle we would always expect entanglement to decrease with fermion distance, we surprisingly find the opposite effect for certain fermion configurations. The von Neumann entropy is found to be proportional to the volume for a large number of particles even when they are arbitrarily close to each other. We will illustrate our results using different configurations of two, three, and four fermions at zero temperature although all our results can be applied to any temperature and any number of particles.     

On the possibility of attaining the Bose-condensation region in spin-polarized atomic hydrogen at ultra-low temperatures

It is shown that the adsorption of atomic hydrogen on the He⁴ surface is predominantly accompanied by excitation of the surface wave. At ultra-low temperatures a strong decrease in the adsorption rate with temperature is found to result in a surface density of adsorbed atoms essentially lower than its equilibrium value. Therefore the channels of recombination of atomic hydrogen on the surface prove to be suppressed and it becomes possible to make compatible the Bose-condensation and the long lifetime of the spin-polarized atomic hydrogen gas.