We theoretically investigate the spin-dipole oscillation of a strongly interacting Fermi gas confined by a harmonic trapping potential. By using a diagrammatic strong-coupling theory combined with a local density approximation and a sum rule approach, we study the temperature dependence of the spin-dipole frequency near unitarity. The connection of the spin-dipole frequency with the spin susceptibility and the pairing correlations is exploited. While the spin-dipole frequency exactly coincides with the trap frequency in a noninteracting Fermi gas, it is shown to be strongly enhanced in the superfluid state, because of the suppression of the spin degree of freedom due to the spin-singlet Cooper-pair formation. In strongly interacting Fermi gases, such enhancement occurs even above the superfluid phase transition temperature, due to the strong pairing correlations.
It is generally believed that a dilute spin-
21 Fermi gas with repulsive interactions can undergo a ferromagnetic phase transition to a spin-polarized state at a critical gas parameter
(kFa)c. Previous theoretical predictions of the ferromagnetic phase transition have been based on the perturbation theory, which treats the gas parameter as a small number. On the other hand, Belitz, Kirkpatrick, and Vojta (BKV) have argued that the phase transition in clean itinerant ferromagnets is generically of first order at low temperatures, due to the correlation effects that lead to a nonanalytic term in the free energy. The second-order perturbation theory predicts a first-order phase transition at
(kFa)c=1.054, consistent with the BKV argument. However, since the critical gas parameter is expected to be of order
O(1), perturbative predictions may be unreliable. In this paper we study the nonperturbative effects on the ferromagnetic phase transition by summing the particle-particle ladder diagrams to all orders in the gas parameter. We consider a universal repulsive Fermi gas where the effective range effects can be neglected, which can be realized in a two-component Fermi gas of
6Li atoms by using a nonadiabatic field switch to the upper branch of a Feshbach resonance with a positive
s-wave scattering length. Our theory predicts a second-order phase transition, which indicates that ferromagnetic transition in dilute Fermi gases is possibly a counterexample to the BKV argument. The predicted critical gas parameter
(kFa)c=0.858 is in good agreement with the recent quantum Monte Carlo result
(kFa)c=0.86 for a nearly zero-range potential [S. Pilati et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 030405 (2010)]. We also compare the spin susceptibility with the quantum Monte Carlo result and find good agreement.
The physics of quantum degenerate atomic Fermi gases in uniform as well as in harmonically trapped configurations is reviewed from a theoretical perspective. Emphasis is given to the effect of interactions that play a crucial role, bringing the gas into a superfluid phase at low temperature. In these dilute systems, interactions are characterized by a single parameter, the
s-wave scattering length, whose value can be tuned using an external magnetic field near a broad Feshbach resonance. The BCS limit of ordinary Fermi superfluidity, the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of dimers, and the unitary limit of large scattering length are important regimes exhibited by interacting Fermi gases. In particular, the BEC and the unitary regimes are characterized by a high value of the superfluid critical temperature, on the order of the Fermi temperature. Different physical properties are discussed, including the density profiles and the energy of the ground-state configurations, the momentum distribution, the fraction of condensed pairs, collective oscillations and pair-breaking effects, the expansion of the gas, the main thermodynamic properties, the behavior in the presence of optical lattices, and the signatures of superfluidity, such as the existence of quantized vortices, the quenching of the moment of inertia, and the consequences of spin polarization. Various theoretical approaches are considered, ranging from the mean-field description of the BCS-BEC crossover to nonperturbative methods based on quantum Monte Carlo techniques. A major goal of the review is to compare theoretical predictions with available experimental results.
We calculate the effects of two-body interactions on the low-frequency oscillations of a normal Fermi gas confined in a harmonic trap. The mean-field contribution to the collective frequencies is evaluated in the collisionless regime using a sum-rule approach. We also discuss the transition between the collisionless and hydrodynamic regimes with special emphasis on the spin dipole mode in which two atomic clouds occupying different spin states oscillate in the opposite phase. The spin dipole mode is predicted to be overdamped in the hydrodynamic regime. The relaxation time is calculated as a function of temperature and the effects of Fermi statistics are explicitly pointed out.
Abstract This chapter discusses the magnetic properties of interacting Fermi gases. It considers the transition to the ferromagnetic phase (itinerant ferromagnetism) of a repulsive Fermi gas as a consequence of the Stoner instability. The dependence of the magnetic susceptibility on the relevant interaction coupling constant is explicitly discussed. The chapter then investigates the competition between superfluidity and ferromagnetism and the nature of the Clogston–Chandrasekhar transition, both in uniform and harmonically trapped Fermi gases, with special focus on the behaviour at unitarity, where systematic experimental data are available. It finally addresses the problem of the polaron in highly polarized configurations and the transition from the polaron to molecular binding along the BCS–BEC crossover.
Using a sum rule approach we investigate the dipole oscillation of a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic trap. The crucial role played by the spin polarizability of the gas is pointed out. We show that the lowest dipole frequency exhibits a characteristic jump at the transition between the stripe and spin-polarized phase. Near the second-order transition between the spin-polarized and the single minimum phase the lowest frequency is vanishingly small for large condensates, reflecting the divergent behavior of the spin polarizability. We compare our results with recent experimental measurements as well as with the predictions of effective mass approximation.