Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:0709.2653 · Physical Review A

Quantum fluctuations in the superfluid state of the BCS-BEC crossover

Roberto B. Diener, Rajdeep Sensarma, Mohit Randeria

Published Feb 29, 2008• 211 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We determine the effects of quantum fluctuations about the $T=0$ mean-field solution of the BCS-BEC crossover in a dilute Fermi gas using the functional integral method. These fluctuations are described in terms of the zero-point motion of collective modes and the virtual scattering of gapped quasiparticles. We calculate their effects on various measurable properties, including chemical potential, ground-state energy, the gap, the speed of sound and the Landau critical velocity. At unitarity, we find excellent agreement with quantum Monte Carlo and experimental results. In the BCS limit, we show analytically that we obtain Fermi liquid interaction corrections to thermodynamics including the Hartree shift. In the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) limit, we show that the theory leads to an approximate description of the reduction of the scattering length for bosonic molecules and also obtain quantum depletion of the Lee-Yang form. At the end of the paper, we describe a method to include feedback of quantum fluctuations into the gap equation, and discuss the problems of self-consistent calculations in satisfying Goldstone's theorem and obtaining ultraviolet finite results at unitarity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.77.023626

Related papers

Quantum fluctuations in the BCS-BEC crossover of two-dimensional Fermi gases

Lianyi He, Hai‐Feng Lü, Gaoqing Cao +2 more

We present a theoretical study of the ground state of the BCS-BEC crossover in dilute two-dimensional Fermi gases. While the mean-field theory provides a simple and analytical equation of state, the pressure is equal to that of a noninteracting Fermi gas in the entire BCS-BEC crossover, which is not consistent with the features of a weakly interacting Bose condensate in the BEC limit and a weakly interacting Fermi liquid in the BCS limit. The inadequacy of the two-dimensional mean-field theory indicates that the quantum fluctuations are much more pronounced than those in three dimensions. In this work, we show that the inclusion of the Gaussian quantum fluctuations naturally recovers the above features in both the BEC and the BCS limits. In the BEC limit, the missing logarithmic dependence on the boson chemical potential is recovered by the quantum fluctuations. Near the quantum phase transition from the vacuum to the BEC phase, we compare our equation of state with the known grand canonical equation of state of two-dimensional Bose gases and determine the ratio of the composite boson scattering length ${a}_{B}$ to the fermion scattering length ${a}_{2\mathrm{D}}$. We find ${a}_{B}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.56{a}_{2\mathrm{D}}$, in good agreement with the exact four-body calculation. We compare our equation of state in the BCS-BEC crossover with recent results from the quantum Monte Carlo simulations and the experimental measurements and find good agreements.

arXiv:1506.07156•Physical Review A•Aug 14, 2015•88 citations

Modified Fermi sphere, pairing gap, and critical temperature for the BCS-BEC crossover

Stefan Floerchinger, Michael M. Scherer, CHRISTOF WETTERICH

We investigate the phase diagram of two-component fermions in the BCS-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensate) crossover. Using functional renormalization-group equations we calculate the effect of quantum fluctuations on the fermionic self-energy parametrized by a wave-function renormalization, an effective Fermi radius, and the gap. This allows us to follow the modifications of the Fermi surface and the dispersion relation for fermionic excitations throughout the whole crossover region. We also determine the critical temperature of the second-order phase transition to superfluidity. Our results are in agreement with BCS theory including Gorkov's correction for a small negative scattering length $a$ and with an interacting Bose gas for a small positive $a$. At the unitarity point the result for the gap at zero temperature agrees well with quantum Monte Carlo simulations, while the critical temperature differs.

arXiv:0912.4050•Physical Review A•Jun 14, 2010•38 citations

Pairing fluctuations and the superfluid density through the BCS-BEC crossover

Edward Taylor, Adam Griffin, N. Fukushima +1 more

We derive an expression for the superfluid density of a uniform two-component Fermi gas through the BCS-BEC crossover in terms of the thermodynamic potential in the presence of an imposed superfluid flow. Treating the pairing fluctuations in a Gaussian approximation following the approach of Nozi\`eres and Schmitt-Rink, we use this definition of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ to obtain an explicit result which is valid at finite temperatures and over the full BCS-BEC crossover. It is crucial that the BCS gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$, the chemical potential $\ensuremath{\mu}$, and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ all include the effect of fluctuations at the same level in a self-consistent manner. We show that the normal fluid density ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}\ensuremath{\equiv}n\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ naturally separates into a sum of contributions from Fermi BCS quasiparticles $({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}^{F})$ and Bose collective modes $({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}^{B})$. The expression for ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}^{F}$ is just Landau's formula for a BCS Fermi superfluid but now calculated over the BCS-BEC crossover. The expression for the Bose contribution ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}^{B}$ is more complicated and only reduces to Landau's formula for a Bose superfluid in the extreme BEC limit, where all the fermions have formed stable Bose pairs and the Bogoliubov excitations of the associated molecular Bose condensate are undamped. In a companion paper, we present numerical calculations of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ using an expression equivalent to the one derived in this paper, over the BCS-BEC crossover, including unitarity, and at finite temperatures.

arXiv:cond-mat/0609187•Physical Review A•Dec 28, 2006•101 citations

Nonlinear Schrödinger equation for a superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover

Sadhan K. Adhikari

We introduce a quasianalytic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with beyond mean-field corrections to describe the dynamics of a zero-temperature dilute superfluid Fermi gas in the crossover from the weak-coupling Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) regime, where ${k}_{F}|a|⪡1$ with $a$ the $s$-wave scattering length and ${k}_{F}$ the Fermi momentum, through the unitarity limit ${k}_{F}a\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}\ensuremath{\infty}$ to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) regime where ${k}_{F}a>0$. The energy of our model is parametrized using the known asymptotic behavior in the BCS, BEC, and the unitarity limits and is in excellent agreement with accurate Green's-function Monte Carlo calculations. The model generates good results for frequencies of collective breathing oscillations of a trapped Fermi superfluid.

arXiv:0802.2222•Physical Review A•Apr 9, 2008•75 citations

Equation of state of a superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover

H Hu, X.-J Liu, P. D. Drummond

We present a theory for a superfluid Fermi gas near the BCS-BEC crossover, including pairing fluctuation contributions to the free energy similar to that considered by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink for the normal phase. In the strong coupling limit, our theory is able to recover the Bogoliubov theory of a weakly interacting Bose gas with a molecular scattering length very close to the known exact result. We compare our results with recent Quantum Monte Carlo simulations both for the ground state and at finite temperature. Excellent agreement is found for all interaction strengths where simulation results are available.

arXiv:cond-mat/0506046•Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Apr 11, 2006•177 citations

Quantum Monte Carlo studies of superfluid Fermi gases

Siyuan Chang, Vijay R. Pandharipande, Joseph Carlson +1 more

We report results of quantum Monte Carlo calculations of the ground state of dilute Fermi gases with attractive short-range two-body interactions. The strength of the interaction is varied to study different pairing regimes which are characterized by the product of the $s$-wave scattering length and the Fermi wave vector, $a{k}_{F}$. We report results for the ground-state energy, the pairing gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$, and the quasiparticle spectrum. In the weak-coupling regime, $1∕a{k}_{F}<\ensuremath{-}1$, we obtain Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid and the energy gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ is much smaller than the Fermi gas energy ${E}_{\mathrm{FG}}$. When $a>0$, the interaction is strong enough to form bound molecules with energy ${E}_{\mathrm{mol}}$. For $1∕a{k}_{F}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.5$, we find that weakly interacting composite bosons are formed in the superfluid gas with $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ and gas energy per particle approaching $\ensuremath{\mid}{E}_{\mathrm{mol}}\ensuremath{\mid}∕2$. In this region, we seem to have Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of molecules. The behavior of the energy and the gap in the BCS-to-BEC transition region, $\ensuremath{-}0.5<1∕a{k}_{F}<0.5$, is discussed.

arXiv:physics/0404115•Physical Review A•Oct 5, 2004•221 citations
We determine the effects of quantum fluctuations about the T=0T=0T=0 mean-field solution of the BCS-BEC crossover in a dilute Fermi gas using the functional integral method. These fluctuations are described in terms of the zero-point motion of collective modes and the virtual scattering of gapped quasiparticles. We calculate their effects on various measurable properties, including chemical potential, ground-state energy, the gap, the speed of sound and the Landau critical velocity. At unitarity, we find excellent agreement with quantum Monte Carlo and experimental results. In the BCS limit, we show analytically that we obtain Fermi liquid interaction corrections to thermodynamics including the Hartree shift. In the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) limit, we show that the theory leads to an approximate description of the reduction of the scattering length for bosonic molecules and also obtain quantum depletion of the Lee-Yang form. At the end of the paper, we describe a method to include feedback of quantum fluctuations into the gap equation, and discuss the problems of self-consistent calculations in satisfying Goldstone's theorem and obtaining ultraviolet finite results at unitarity.
We present a theoretical study of the ground state of the BCS-BEC crossover in dilute two-dimensional Fermi gases. While the mean-field theory provides a simple and analytical equation of state, the pressure is equal to that of a noninteracting Fermi gas in the entire BCS-BEC crossover, which is not consistent with the features of a weakly interacting Bose condensate in the BEC limit and a weakly interacting Fermi liquid in the BCS limit. The inadequacy of the two-dimensional mean-field theory indicates that the quantum fluctuations are much more pronounced than those in three dimensions. In this work, we show that the inclusion of the Gaussian quantum fluctuations naturally recovers the above features in both the BEC and the BCS limits. In the BEC limit, the missing logarithmic dependence on the boson chemical potential is recovered by the quantum fluctuations. Near the quantum phase transition from the vacuum to the BEC phase, we compare our equation of state with the known grand canonical equation of state of two-dimensional Bose gases and determine the ratio of the composite boson scattering length aB{a}_{B}aB​ to the fermion scattering length a2D{a}_{2\mathrm{D}}a2D​. We find ${a}_{B}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.56{a}_{2\mathrm{D}}$, in good agreement with the exact four-body calculation. We compare our equation of state in the BCS-BEC crossover with recent results from the quantum Monte Carlo simulations and the experimental measurements and find good agreements.
We investigate the phase diagram of two-component fermions in the BCS-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensate) crossover. Using functional renormalization-group equations we calculate the effect of quantum fluctuations on the fermionic self-energy parametrized by a wave-function renormalization, an effective Fermi radius, and the gap. This allows us to follow the modifications of the Fermi surface and the dispersion relation for fermionic excitations throughout the whole crossover region. We also determine the critical temperature of the second-order phase transition to superfluidity. Our results are in agreement with BCS theory including Gorkov's correction for a small negative scattering length aaa and with an interacting Bose gas for a small positive aaa. At the unitarity point the result for the gap at zero temperature agrees well with quantum Monte Carlo simulations, while the critical temperature differs.
We derive an expression for the superfluid density of a uniform two-component Fermi gas through the BCS-BEC crossover in terms of the thermodynamic potential in the presence of an imposed superfluid flow. Treating the pairing fluctuations in a Gaussian approximation following the approach of Nozi\`eres and Schmitt-Rink, we use this definition of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ to obtain an explicit result which is valid at finite temperatures and over the full BCS-BEC crossover. It is crucial that the BCS gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$, the chemical potential $\ensuremath{\mu}$, and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ all include the effect of fluctuations at the same level in a self-consistent manner. We show that the normal fluid density ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}\ensuremath{\equiv}n\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ naturally separates into a sum of contributions from Fermi BCS quasiparticles $({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}^{F})$ and Bose collective modes $({\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}^{B})$. The expression for ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}^{F}$ is just Landau's formula for a BCS Fermi superfluid but now calculated over the BCS-BEC crossover. The expression for the Bose contribution ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}^{B}$ is more complicated and only reduces to Landau's formula for a Bose superfluid in the extreme BEC limit, where all the fermions have formed stable Bose pairs and the Bogoliubov excitations of the associated molecular Bose condensate are undamped. In a companion paper, we present numerical calculations of ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}$ using an expression equivalent to the one derived in this paper, over the BCS-BEC crossover, including unitarity, and at finite temperatures.
We introduce a quasianalytic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with beyond mean-field corrections to describe the dynamics of a zero-temperature dilute superfluid Fermi gas in the crossover from the weak-coupling Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) regime, where kF∣a∣⪡1{k}_{F}|a|⪡1kF​∣a∣⪡1 with aaa the sss-wave scattering length and kF{k}_{F}kF​ the Fermi momentum, through the unitarity limit ${k}_{F}a\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}\ensuremath{\infty}$ to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) regime where kFa>0{k}_{F}a>0kF​a>0. The energy of our model is parametrized using the known asymptotic behavior in the BCS, BEC, and the unitarity limits and is in excellent agreement with accurate Green's-function Monte Carlo calculations. The model generates good results for frequencies of collective breathing oscillations of a trapped Fermi superfluid.
We present a theory for a superfluid Fermi gas near the BCS-BEC crossover, including pairing fluctuation contributions to the free energy similar to that considered by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink for the normal phase. In the strong coupling limit, our theory is able to recover the Bogoliubov theory of a weakly interacting Bose gas with a molecular scattering length very close to the known exact result. We compare our results with recent Quantum Monte Carlo simulations both for the ground state and at finite temperature. Excellent agreement is found for all interaction strengths where simulation results are available.
We report results of quantum Monte Carlo calculations of the ground state of dilute Fermi gases with attractive short-range two-body interactions. The strength of the interaction is varied to study different pairing regimes which are characterized by the product of the sss-wave scattering length and the Fermi wave vector, akFa{k}_{F}akF​. We report results for the ground-state energy, the pairing gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$, and the quasiparticle spectrum. In the weak-coupling regime, $1∕a{k}_{F}<\ensuremath{-}1$, we obtain Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid and the energy gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ is much smaller than the Fermi gas energy EFG{E}_{\mathrm{FG}}EFG​. When a>0a>0a>0, the interaction is strong enough to form bound molecules with energy Emol{E}_{\mathrm{mol}}Emol​. For $1∕a{k}_{F}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.5$, we find that weakly interacting composite bosons are formed in the superfluid gas with $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ and gas energy per particle approaching $\ensuremath{\mid}{E}_{\mathrm{mol}}\ensuremath{\mid}∕2$. In this region, we seem to have Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of molecules. The behavior of the energy and the gap in the BCS-to-BEC transition region, $\ensuremath{-}0.5<1∕a{k}_{F}<0.5$, is discussed.