We study the angular Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, in which the rotation symmetry is spontaneously broken, in population imbalanced fermion gases near the BCS-BEC crossover. We investigate the superfluid gases at low temperatures on the basis of the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equation and examine the stability against thermal fluctuations using the
T-matrix approach beyond the local-density approximation. We find that the angular FFLO state is stabilized in the gases confined in the toroidal trap but not in the harmonic trap. The angular FFLO state is stable near the BCS-BEC crossover owing to the formation of pseudogap. Spatial dependences of number density and local population imbalance are shown for an experimental test.
The recent development of experimental techniques in ultracold atomic Fermi gases is extremely helpful in the progress of the realization of the unconventional Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superfluid phase in quasi-one dimensional systems (Liao et al 2010 Nature 467 567). Due to a Fermi surface nesting, which is enhanced in 1D, the low-dimensional systems are particularly good candidates to find the FFLO phase stable. We investigate the influence of a dimensional crossover (from one dimension (1D) to two dimensions (2D) or three dimensions (3D)) on the stability of the FFLO state in the spin-imbalanced attractive Hubbard model.