Universal dynamic structure factor of a strongly correlated Fermi gas

Abstract

Universality of strongly interacting fermions is a topic of great interest in diverse fields. Here we investigate theoretically the universal dynamic density response of resonantly interacting ultracold Fermi atoms in the limit of either high temperature or large frequency. At high temperature, we use quantum virial expansion to derive universal, nonperturbative expansion functions of the dynamic structure factor; at large momentum, we conjecture that the second-order expansion function gives the Wilson coefficient used in the operator product expansion method. The dynamic structure factor is therefore determined by its second-order expansion function with an overall normalization factor given by Tan's [S. Tan, Ann. Phys. (NY) 323, 2952 (2008); S. Tan, Ann. Phys. (NY) 323, 2971 (2008); S. Tan, Ann. Phys. (NY) 323, 2987 (2008)] contact parameter. We show that the spin-parallel and -antiparallel dynamic structure factors have, respectively, a tail of the form $\ensuremath{\sim}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}{\ensuremath{\omega}}^{\ensuremath{-}5/2}$ for $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, decaying slower than the total dynamic structure factor found previously ($\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\omega}}^{\ensuremath{-}7/2}$). Our predictions for the dynamic structure factor at high temperature or large frequency are testable using Bragg spectroscopy for ultracold atomic Fermi gases.