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arXiv:1707.07781 · Physical Review A

SU( N ) fermions in a one-dimensional harmonic trap

Emma Laird, Zhe-Yu Shi, Meera M. Parish, Jesper Levinsen

Published Sep 1, 2017• 30 citations
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Abstract

We conduct a theoretical study of $\mathrm{SU}(N$) fermions confined by a one-dimensional harmonic potential. First, we introduce a numerical approach for solving the trapped interacting few-body problem, by which one may obtain accurate energy spectra across the full range of interaction strengths. In the strong-coupling limit, we map the $\mathrm{SU}(N$) Hamiltonian to a spin-chain model. We then show that an existing, extremely accurate ansatz---derived for a Heisenberg SU(2) spin chain---is extendable to these $N$-component systems. Lastly, we consider balanced $\mathrm{SU}(N$) Fermi gases that have an equal number of particles in each spin state for $N=2,\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}3,\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}4$. In the weak- and strong-coupling regimes, we find that the ground-state energies rapidly converge to their expected values in the thermodynamic limit with increasing atom number. This suggests that the many-body energetics of $N$-component fermions may be accurately inferred from the corresponding few-body systems of $N$ distinguishable particles.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.96.032701

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We conduct a theoretical study of SU(N\mathrm{SU}(NSU(N) fermions confined by a one-dimensional harmonic potential. First, we introduce a numerical approach for solving the trapped interacting few-body problem, by which one may obtain accurate energy spectra across the full range of interaction strengths. In the strong-coupling limit, we map the SU(N\mathrm{SU}(NSU(N) Hamiltonian to a spin-chain model. We then show that an existing, extremely accurate ansatz---derived for a Heisenberg SU(2) spin chain---is extendable to these NNN-component systems. Lastly, we consider balanced SU(N\mathrm{SU}(NSU(N) Fermi gases that have an equal number of particles in each spin state for N=2,3,4N=2,\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}3,\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}4N=2,3,4. In the weak- and strong-coupling regimes, we find that the ground-state energies rapidly converge to their expected values in the thermodynamic limit with increasing atom number. This suggests that the many-body energetics of NNN-component fermions may be accurately inferred from the corresponding few-body systems of NNN distinguishable particles.
The nature of strongly interacting Fermi gases and magnetism is one of the most important and studied topics in condensed-matter physics. Still, there are many open questions. A central issue is under what circumstances strong short-range repulsive interactions are enough to drive magnetic correlations. Recent progress in the field of cold atomic gases allows one to address this question in very clean systems where both particle numbers, interactions and dimensionality can be tuned. Here we study fermionic few-body systems in a one dimensional harmonic trap using a new rapidly converging effective-interaction technique, plus a novel analytical approach. This allows us to calculate the properties of a single spin-down atom interacting with a number of spin-up particles, a case of much recent experimental interest. Our findings indicate that, in the strongly interacting limit, spin-up and spin-down particles want to separate in the trap, which we interpret as a microscopic precursor of one-dimensional ferromagnetism in imbalanced systems. Our predictions are directly addressable in current experiments on ultracold atomic few-body systems.
A major challenge in modern physics is to accurately describe strongly interacting quantum many-body systems. One-dimensional systems provide fundamental insights because they are often amenable to exact methods. However, no exact solution is known for the experimentally relevant case of external confinement. We propose a powerful ansatz for the one-dimensional Fermi gas in a harmonic potential near the limit of infinite short-range repulsion. For the case of a single impurity in a Fermi sea, we show that our ansatz is indistinguishable from numerically exact results in both the few- and many-body limits. We furthermore derive an effective Heisenberg spin-chain model corresponding to our ansatz, valid for any spin-mixture, within which we obtain the impurity eigenstates analytically. In particular, the classical Pascal's triangle emerges in the expression for the ground-state wave function. As well as providing an important benchmark for strongly correlated physics, our results are relevant for emerging quantum technologies, where a precise knowledge of one-dimensional quantum states is paramount.
The nature of strongly interacting Fermi gases and magnetism is one of the most important and studied topics in condensed-matter physics. Still, there are many open questions. A central issue is under what circumstances strong short-range repulsive interactions are enough to drive magnetic correlations. Recent progress in the field of cold atomic gases allows one to address this question in very clean systems where both particle numbers, interactions and dimensionality can be tuned. Here we study fermionic few-body systems in a one dimensional harmonic trap using a new rapidly converging effective-interaction technique, plus a novel analytical approach. This allows us to calculate the properties of a single spin-down atom interacting with a number of spin-up particles, a case of much recent experimental interest. Our findings indicate that, in the strongly interacting limit, spin-up and spin-down particles want to separate in the trap, which we interpret as a microscopic precursor of one-dimensional ferromagnetism in imbalanced systems. Our predictions are directly addressable in current experiments on ultracold atomic few-body systems.
We employ ab initio methods of quantum chemistry to investigate spin-1/2 fermions interacting via a two-body contact potential in a one-dimensional harmonic trap. The convergence of the total energy with the size of the one-particle basis set is analytically investigated for the two-body problem and the same form of the convergence formula is numerically confirmed to be valid for the many-body case. Benchmark calculations for two to six fermions with the full configuration interaction method equivalent to the exact diagonalization approach, and the coupled cluster (CC) method including single, double, triple, and quadruple excitations are presented. The convergence of the correlation energy with the level of excitations included in the CC model is analyzed. The range of the interaction strength for which single-reference CC methods work is examined. Next, the CC method restricted to single, double, and noniterative triple excitations, CCSD(T), is employed to study a two-component Fermi gas composed of 6–80 atoms in a one-dimensional harmonic trap. The density profiles of trapped atomic clouds are also reported. Finally, a comparison with experimental results for few-fermion systems is presented. Upcoming possible applications and extensions of the presented approach are discussed.
The properties of a balanced two-component Fermi gas in a one-dimensional harmonic trap are studied by means of the coupled-cluster method. For few fermions we recover the results of exact diagonalization, yet with this method we are able to study much larger systems. We compute the energy, the chemical potential, the pairing gap, and the density profile of the trapped clouds, smoothly mapping the crossover between the few-body and many-body limits. The energy is found to converge surprisingly rapidly to the many-body result for every value of the interaction strength. Many more particles are instead needed to give rise to the nonanalytic behavior of the pairing gap, and to smoothen the pronounced even-odd oscillations of the chemical potential induced by the shell structure of the trap.
We explore a few-fermion mixture consisting of two components that are repulsively interacting and confined in a one-dimensional harmonic trap. Different scenarios of population imbalance ranging from the completely imbalanced case where the physics of a single impurity in the Fermi sea is discussed to the partially imbalanced and equal population configurations are investigated. For the numerical calculations the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method is employed, extending its application to few-fermion systems. Apart from numerical calculations we generalize our ansatz for a correlated pair wave function proposed recently [I. Brouzos and P. Schmelcher, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 045301 (2012)] for bosons to mixtures of fermions. From weak to strong coupling between the components the energies, the densities and the correlation properties of one-dimensional systems change vastly with an upper limit set by fermionization where for infinite repulsion all fermions can be mapped to identical ones. The numerical and analytical treatments are in good agreement with respect to the description of this crossover. We show that for equal populations each pair of different component atoms splits into two single peaks in the density while for partial imbalance additional peaks and plateaus arise for very strong interaction strengths. The case of a single-impurity atom shows rich behavior of the energy and density as we approach fermionization and is directly connected to recent experiments [G. Z\"urn et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 075303 (2012)].