Thermodynamics of Spin-Imbalanced Fermi Gases with S U ( N ) -Symmetric Interaction
Chengdong He, Xin-Yuan Gao, Ka Kwan Pak +6 more
Thermodynamics of degenerate Fermi gases has been extensively studied through various aspects such as Pauli blocking effects, collective modes, BCS superfluidity, and more. Despite this, multicomponent fermions with imbalanced spin configurations remain largely unexplored, particularly beyond the two-component scenario. In this Letter, we generalize the thermodynamic study of SU(N) fermions to spin-imbalanced configurations based on density fluctuations. Theoretically, we provide closed-form expressions of density fluctuation across all temperature ranges for general spin population setups. Experimentally, after calibrating the measurements with deeply degenerate ^{173}Yb Fermi gases under spin-balanced configurations (N≤6), we examine the density fluctuations in spin-imbalanced systems. Specifically, we investigate two-species and four-species configurations to validate our theoretical predictions. Our analysis indicates that interaction enhancement effects can be significant even in highly spin-imbalanced systems. Finally, as an application, we use this approach to examine the decoherence process. Our Letter provides a deeper understanding of the thermodynamic features of spin-imbalanced multicomponent Fermi gases and opens new avenues for exploring complex quantum many-body systems.
arXiv:2409.04960•Physical Review Letters•May 7, 2025•3 citations