Theoretical predictions for the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-Bose-Einstein condensation crossover of trapped Fermi atoms are compared with recent experimental results for the density profiles of 6Li. The calculations rest on a single theoretical approach that includes pairing fluctuations beyond mean-field. Excellent agreement with experimental results is obtained. Theoretical predictions for the zero-temperature chemical potential and gap at the unitarity limit are also found to compare extremely well with Quantum Monte Carlo simulations and with recent experimental results.
We present a comprehensive study of the Bose-Einstein condensate to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BEC-BCS) crossover in fermionic 6Li using Bragg spectroscopy. A smooth transition from molecular to atomic spectra is observed with a clear signature of pairing at and above unitarity. These spectra probe the dynamic and static structure factors of the gas and provide a direct link to two-body correlations. We have characterized these correlations and measured their density dependence across the broad Feshbach resonance at 834 G.
We theoretically investigate the dynamic structure factor of a strongly interacting Fermi gas at the crossover from Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer superfluids to Bose–Einstein condensates, by developing an improved random phase approximation within the framework of a density functional theory (DFT)—the so-called superfluid local density approximation. Compared with the previous random-phase-approximation studies based on the standard Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations, the use of the DFT greatly improves the accuracy of the equation of state at the crossover, and leads to a better description of both collective Bogoliubov-Anderson-Goldstone phonon mode and single-particle fermionic excitations at small transferred momentum. Near unitarity, where the s -wave scattering length diverges, we show that the single-particle excitations start to significantly contribute to the spectrum of dynamic structure factor once the frequency is above a threshold of the energy gap at . The sharp rise in the spectrum at this threshold can be utilized to measure the pairing gap Δ. Together with the sound velocity determined from the phonon branch, the dynamic structure factor provides us some key information of the crossover Fermi superfluid. Our predictions could be examined in experiments with 6 Li or 40 K atoms using Bragg spectroscopy.
Ultracold atomic gases are a powerful tool to experimentally study strongly correlated quantum many-body systems. In particular, ultracold Fermi gases with tunable interactions have allowed to realize the famous BEC-BCS crossover from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of molecules to a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid of weakly bound Cooper pairs. However, large parts of the excitation spectrum of fermionic superfluids in the BEC-BCS crossover are still unexplored. In this work, we use Bragg spectroscopy to measure the full momentum-resolved low-energy excitation spectrum of strongly interacting ultracold Fermi gases. This enables us to directly observe the smooth transformation from a bosonic to a fermionic superfluid that takes place in the BEC-BCS crossover. We also use our spectra to determine the evolution of the superfluid gap and find excellent agreement with previous experiments and self-consistent T-matrix calculations both in the BEC and crossover regime. However, toward the BCS regime a calculation that includes the effects of particle-hole correlations shows better agreement with our data.
We report measurements showing the universal behaviour of the static structure factor and both the temperature and interaction dependence of pair correlations in a strongly interacting Fermi gas. We utilize Bragg spectroscopy to obtain the static structure factor by recording excitation spectra of trapped clouds of ultracold 6Li atoms. Our results show clear evidence of strong short-range pair correlations above the critical temperature for superfluidity through the BEC-BCS crossover and agree well with theoretical calculations.
We theoretically study the thermodynamic properties of a strongly interacting Fermi gas at the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), by applying a recently outlined strong-coupling theory that includes pair fluctuations beyond the commonly-used many-body
T -matrix or ladder approximation at the Gaussian level. The beyond Gaussian pair fluctuation (GPF) theory always respects the exact thermodynamic relations and recovers the Bogoliubov theory of molecules in the BEC limit with a nearly correct molecule-molecule scattering length. We show that the beyond-GPF theory predicts quantitatively accurate ground-state properties at the BEC-BCS crossover, in good agreement with the recent measurement by Horikoshi et al. in Phys. Rev. X 7, 041004 (2017). In the unitary limit with infinitely large
s -wave scattering length, the beyond-GPF theory predicts a reliable universal energy equation of state up to 0.6
Tc , where
Tc is the superfluid transition temperature at unitarity. The theory predicts a Bertsch parameter
ξ≃0.365 at zero temperature, in good agreement with the latest quantum Monte Carlo result
ξ=0.367(7) and the latest experimental measurement
ξ=0.367(9) . We attribute the excellent and wide applicability of the beyond-GPF theory in the broken-symmetry phase at sufficiently low temperatures to the empirically useful partial re-summation of Feynman diagrams following a dimensional
ϵ -expansion analysis near four dimensions (
d=4−ϵ ), which gives rise to accurate predictions at the second order
O(ϵ2) . Our work indicates the possibility of further improving the strong-coupling theory of strongly interacting fermions based on the systematic inclusion of large-loop Feynman diagrams at higher orders
O(ϵn) with
n≥3 .