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:1203.3325 · Physical Review A

Atypical BCS-BEC crossover induced by quantum-size effects

Arkady A Shanenko, Mihail D Croitoru, Alexei Vagov, V. M. Axt, Andrea Perali, François Maria Peeters

Published Sep 12, 2012• 40 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum-size oscillations of the basic physical characteristics of a confined fermionic condensate are a well-known phenomenon. Its conventional understanding is based on the single-particle physics, whereby the oscillations follow variations in the single-particle density of states driven by the size quantization. Here we present a study of a cigar-shaped ultracold superfluid Fermi gas, which demonstrates an important many-body aspect of the quantum-size coherent effects, overlooked previously. The many-body physics is revealed here in the atypical crossover from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) induced by the size quantization of the particle motion. The single-particle energy spectrum for the transverse dimensions is tightly bound, whereas for the longitudinal direction it resembles a quasi-free dispersion. This results in the formation of a series of single-particle subbands (shells) so that the aggregate fermionic condensate becomes a coherent mixture of subband condensates. Each time when the lower edge of a subband crosses the chemical potential, the BCS-BEC crossover is approached in this subband, and the aggregate condensate contains both BCS and BEC-like components.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.033612

Related papers

Giant drop in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer coherence length induced by quantum size effects in superconducting nanowires

Arkady A Shanenko, Mihail D Croitoru, Alexei Vagov +1 more

The BCS coherence length in low-dimensional superconductors is dramatically modified by quantum-size effects. In particular, for nanowires made of conventional superconducting materials, we show that the longitudinal zero-temperature coherence length exhibits width-dependent drops by 2--3 orders of magnitude each time when the bottom of one of single-electron subbands formed due to the transverse quantization of electron motion is situated in a close vicinity to the Fermi level. This phenomenon has strong similarities to the well-known BCS-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover in ultracold fermionic condensates but with an important exception: it is driven by the transverse quantization of the electron motion rather than by the externally controlled strength of the fermion-fermion interaction.

Physical Review B•Sep 29, 2010•35 citations

BCS-BEC crossover-like phenomena driven by quantum-size effects in quasi-one-dimensional fermionic condensates

Arkady A Shanenko, Mihail D Croitoru, Alexei Vagov +3 more

Quantum confinement is known to influence fermionic condensates, resulting in quantum-size oscillations of superfluid/superconducting properties. Here we show that the impact of quantum-size effects is even more dramatic. Under realistic conditions, a significant phase-space reconfiguration induced by quantum-size effects opens a quasi-molecule channel in the fermionic pairing so that the condensed pairs exhibit features typical of a molecular state. As an illustration we consider a quasi-one-dimensional fermionic condensate, as realized, e.g., in cigar-shaped atomic Fermi gases or superconducting quantum wires. In this case the transverse quantization of the particle motion favors pairing through a coherent superposition of quantum channels that are formed due to the grouping of single-particle levels into a series of well distinguished subbands. Whenever the bottom of a subband approaches the Fermi level, the longitudinal spatial distribution of fermions in a condensed pair becomes strongly localized within the corresponding quantum channel. The fermionic pairs in this channel resemble molecules with bosonic character.

arXiv:1110.4842•Oct 21, 2011•0 citations

Excitation Spectrum and Superfluid Gap of an Ultracold Fermi Gas

Hauke Biss, Lennart Sobirey, Niclas Luick +5 more

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.

arXiv:2105.09820•Physical Review Letters•Mar 8, 2022•71 citations

Dimensional crossover in two-component Fermi gases with attractive interactions

Mathias Macêdo Lima

This work studies zero-temperature Fermi gases with short-ranged and attractive interactions with focus on the dimensionality aspects by confining the system from three to two dimensions. Interacting Fermi gases are superfluids characterized as being strongly correlated if the scattering length is much larger than the other scales present. In the many-body context, this category of systems requires a careful treatment since mean-field approaches are not expected to hold under the conditions which define the strong pairing. For this reason, we employ quantum Monte Carlo methods to study the dimensionality effects in two-component Fermi gases in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer to Bose-Einstein condensate (BCS-BEC) crossover. To be able to investigate such aspects, we consider a three-dimensional gas with periodic boundary conditions in the xy plane and a confining potential in the z direction capable of reducing the dimensionality of the system, which defines a dimensional BCS-BEC crossover. We calculate the equation of state as the energy per particle as a function of the dimensionality and as a function of the interaction parameter, which are characterized by the oscillator length in the z direction and the scattering length respectively. The greater confinement in the system lowers the interparticle distances, which increases the effects of the attractive interactions between antiparallel-spin fermions.We also calculate the density profile in the z direction over the crossover for different confinements and different interaction parameters to quantify their influence on the spatial distribution of the particles. This study connects the perspectives between theoretical and experimental works in low-dimensional ultracold Fermi gases by utilizing an approach that is similar to what it is realized in modern experiments.

•Mar 30, 2026•0 citations

Collective modes of low-dimensional superfluid Fermi gases in the BCS-BEC crossover: Time-dependent variational analysis

Yu Long Zhou, Guoxiang Huang

We investigate collective modes and free expansions of quasi-one- and quasi-two-dimensional (Q1D and Q2D) ultracold Fermi gases in the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We solve a superfluid order parameter equation valid for the BCS-BEC crossover by employing a time-dependent variational method. We take a trial wave function of hybrid Gaussian-parabolic type, which not only reflects the low-dimensional character of the system but also allows an essentially analytical approach for the problem. We present Q1D and Q2D criteria that are valid in various superfluid regimes and show clearly the relation between the maximum condensed particle number and the parameters of the trapping potential as well as the atom-atom interaction. We demonstrate that, due to the small particle number in Q1D and Q2D condensates, the contribution to oscillating frequencies of collective modes by the quantum pressure in the strong-confinement direction is significant and hence the Thomas-Fermi approximation cannot be used. We also show that the free expansion of Q1D and Q2D superfluid Fermi gases in the strong-confinement direction is much faster than that in the weak-confinement direction.

Physical Review A•Feb 12, 2007•22 citations

BCS-BEC crossover of atomic Fermi superfluid in a spherical bubble trap

Yan He, Hao Guo, Chih-Chun Chien

We present a theory of a two-component atomic Fermi gas with tunable attractive contact interactions on a spherical shell going through the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS)--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover, inspired by the realizations of spherical bubble traps for ultracold atoms in microgravity. The derivation follows the BCS-Leggett theory to obtain the gap and number equations. The BCS-BEC crossover can be induced by tuning the interaction, and the properly normalized gap and chemical potential exhibit universal behavior regardless of the planar or spherical geometry. Nevertheless, the spherical-shell geometry introduces another way of inducing the crossover by the curvature. The curvature-induced BCS-BEC crossover is made possible by fixing the particle number and interaction strength while shrinking the sphere, causing a reduction to the ratio of the pairing and kinetic energies and pushing the system toward the BCS limit. The saturation of the superfluid density further confirms that the ground state is a Fermi superfluid.

arXiv:2110.09496•Physical Review A•Mar 31, 2022•14 citations
Quantum-size oscillations of the basic physical characteristics of a confined fermionic condensate are a well-known phenomenon. Its conventional understanding is based on the single-particle physics, whereby the oscillations follow variations in the single-particle density of states driven by the size quantization. Here we present a study of a cigar-shaped ultracold superfluid Fermi gas, which demonstrates an important many-body aspect of the quantum-size coherent effects, overlooked previously. The many-body physics is revealed here in the atypical crossover from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) induced by the size quantization of the particle motion. The single-particle energy spectrum for the transverse dimensions is tightly bound, whereas for the longitudinal direction it resembles a quasi-free dispersion. This results in the formation of a series of single-particle subbands (shells) so that the aggregate fermionic condensate becomes a coherent mixture of subband condensates. Each time when the lower edge of a subband crosses the chemical potential, the BCS-BEC crossover is approached in this subband, and the aggregate condensate contains both BCS and BEC-like components.
The BCS coherence length in low-dimensional superconductors is dramatically modified by quantum-size effects. In particular, for nanowires made of conventional superconducting materials, we show that the longitudinal zero-temperature coherence length exhibits width-dependent drops by 2--3 orders of magnitude each time when the bottom of one of single-electron subbands formed due to the transverse quantization of electron motion is situated in a close vicinity to the Fermi level. This phenomenon has strong similarities to the well-known BCS-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover in ultracold fermionic condensates but with an important exception: it is driven by the transverse quantization of the electron motion rather than by the externally controlled strength of the fermion-fermion interaction.
Quantum confinement is known to influence fermionic condensates, resulting in quantum-size oscillations of superfluid/superconducting properties. Here we show that the impact of quantum-size effects is even more dramatic. Under realistic conditions, a significant phase-space reconfiguration induced by quantum-size effects opens a quasi-molecule channel in the fermionic pairing so that the condensed pairs exhibit features typical of a molecular state. As an illustration we consider a quasi-one-dimensional fermionic condensate, as realized, e.g., in cigar-shaped atomic Fermi gases or superconducting quantum wires. In this case the transverse quantization of the particle motion favors pairing through a coherent superposition of quantum channels that are formed due to the grouping of single-particle levels into a series of well distinguished subbands. Whenever the bottom of a subband approaches the Fermi level, the longitudinal spatial distribution of fermions in a condensed pair becomes strongly localized within the corresponding quantum channel. The fermionic pairs in this channel resemble molecules with bosonic character.
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.
This work studies zero-temperature Fermi gases with short-ranged and attractive interactions with focus on the dimensionality aspects by confining the system from three to two dimensions. Interacting Fermi gases are superfluids characterized as being strongly correlated if the scattering length is much larger than the other scales present. In the many-body context, this category of systems requires a careful treatment since mean-field approaches are not expected to hold under the conditions which define the strong pairing. For this reason, we employ quantum Monte Carlo methods to study the dimensionality effects in two-component Fermi gases in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer to Bose-Einstein condensate (BCS-BEC) crossover. To be able to investigate such aspects, we consider a three-dimensional gas with periodic boundary conditions in the xy plane and a confining potential in the z direction capable of reducing the dimensionality of the system, which defines a dimensional BCS-BEC crossover. We calculate the equation of state as the energy per particle as a function of the dimensionality and as a function of the interaction parameter, which are characterized by the oscillator length in the z direction and the scattering length respectively. The greater confinement in the system lowers the interparticle distances, which increases the effects of the attractive interactions between antiparallel-spin fermions.We also calculate the density profile in the z direction over the crossover for different confinements and different interaction parameters to quantify their influence on the spatial distribution of the particles. This study connects the perspectives between theoretical and experimental works in low-dimensional ultracold Fermi gases by utilizing an approach that is similar to what it is realized in modern experiments.
We investigate collective modes and free expansions of quasi-one- and quasi-two-dimensional (Q1D and Q2D) ultracold Fermi gases in the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We solve a superfluid order parameter equation valid for the BCS-BEC crossover by employing a time-dependent variational method. We take a trial wave function of hybrid Gaussian-parabolic type, which not only reflects the low-dimensional character of the system but also allows an essentially analytical approach for the problem. We present Q1D and Q2D criteria that are valid in various superfluid regimes and show clearly the relation between the maximum condensed particle number and the parameters of the trapping potential as well as the atom-atom interaction. We demonstrate that, due to the small particle number in Q1D and Q2D condensates, the contribution to oscillating frequencies of collective modes by the quantum pressure in the strong-confinement direction is significant and hence the Thomas-Fermi approximation cannot be used. We also show that the free expansion of Q1D and Q2D superfluid Fermi gases in the strong-confinement direction is much faster than that in the weak-confinement direction.
We present a theory of a two-component atomic Fermi gas with tunable attractive contact interactions on a spherical shell going through the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS)--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover, inspired by the realizations of spherical bubble traps for ultracold atoms in microgravity. The derivation follows the BCS-Leggett theory to obtain the gap and number equations. The BCS-BEC crossover can be induced by tuning the interaction, and the properly normalized gap and chemical potential exhibit universal behavior regardless of the planar or spherical geometry. Nevertheless, the spherical-shell geometry introduces another way of inducing the crossover by the curvature. The curvature-induced BCS-BEC crossover is made possible by fixing the particle number and interaction strength while shrinking the sphere, causing a reduction to the ratio of the pairing and kinetic energies and pushing the system toward the BCS limit. The saturation of the superfluid density further confirms that the ground state is a Fermi superfluid.