We provide a description of the dynamic structure factor of a homogeneous unitary Fermi gas at low momentum and low frequency, based on the dissipative two-fluid hydrodynamic theory. The viscous relaxation time is estimated and is used to determine the regime where the hydrodynamic theory is applicable and to understand the nature of sound waves in the density response near the superfluid phase transition. By collecting the best knowledge on the shear viscosity and thermal conductivity known so far, we calculate the various diffusion coefficients and obtain the damping width of the (first and second) sounds. We find that the damping width of the first sound is greatly enhanced across the superfluid transition and very close to the transition the second sound might be resolved in the density response for the transferred momentum up to half of Fermi momentum. Our work is motivated by the recent measurement of the local dynamic structure factor at low momentum at Swinburne University of Technology and the ongoing experiment on sound attenuation of a homogeneous unitary Fermi gas at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We discuss how the measurement of the velocity and damping width of the sound modes in low-momentum dynamic structure factor may lead to an improved determination of the universal superfluid density, shear viscosity, and thermal conductivity of a unitary Fermi gas.
We provide a description of the dynamic structure factor of a homogeneous unitary Fermi gas at low momentum and low frequency, based on the dissipative two-fluid hydrodynamic theory. The viscous relaxation time is estimated and is used to determine the regime where the hydrodynamic theory is applicable and to understand the nature of sound waves in the density response near the superfluid phase transition. By collecting the best knowledge on the shear viscosity and thermal conductivity known so far, we calculate the various diffusion coefficients and obtain the damping width of the (first and second) sounds. We find that the damping width of the first sound is greatly enhanced across the superfluid transition and very close to the transition the second sound might be resolved in the density response for the transferred momentum up to half of Fermi momentum. Our work is motivated by the recent measurement of the local dynamic structure factor at low momentum at Swinburne University of Technology and the ongoing experiment on sound attenuation of a homogeneous unitary Fermi gas at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We discuss how the measurement of the velocity and damping width of the sound modes in low-momentum dynamic structure factor may lead to an improved determination of the universal superfluid density, shear viscosity, and thermal conductivity of a unitary Fermi gas.
This thesis is devoted to the study of the hydrodynamic behavior of the unitary Fermi gas trapped by a highly elongated harmonic potential. Propagation of sound is one of the most exciting features exhibited by interacting many-body systems. It provides crucial information on the dynamic behavior of the system as well as on key thermodynamic quantities. The propagation of sound is particularly interesting in superfluids where two-fluid hydrodynamic theory predicts the occurrence of two different sounds: first sound, where the normal and superfluid component oscillate in phase, and second sound, where the two components oscillate with opposite phase. In the thesis, we investigate the propagation of sound waves of the unitary Fermi gas in a cylindrical geometry by solving the equations of two-fluid hydrodynamics in the `1D' scenario at finite temperature. The relevant thermodynamic functions entering the hydrodynamic equations are discussed in the superfluid and normal regimes in terms of universal scaling functions. Both the first sound and second sound solutions are calculated as a function of temperature and the role of the superfluid density is explicitly pointed out. The density fluctuations in the second sound wave are found to be large enough to be measured as a consequence of the finite thermal expansion coefficient of the gas, which is the strategy used in a recent experiment carried out at Innsbruck where second sound was detected in the unitary Fermi gas. We also provide an investigation of the temperature dependence of the collective oscillations of first sound nature exhibited by a highly elongated harmonically trapped Fermi gas at unitarity, including the region below the critical temperature for superfluidity. Differently from the lowest axial breathing mode, the hydrodynamic frequencies of the higher-nodal excitations show a temperature dependence, which is calculated starting from Landau two-fluid theory and using the available experimental knowledge of the equation of state.
We develop a microscopic theory of the dynamic structure factor to describe the Bogoliubov-Anderson-Goldstone phonon mode and its damping rate in a strongly interacting Fermi gas at finite temperature. It is based on a density functional approach---the so-called superfluid local density approximation. The accuracy of the theory is quantitatively examined by comparing the theoretical predictions with recent experimental measurements for the local dynamic structure factor of a nearly homogeneous unitary Fermi gas at low transferred momentum [S. Hoinka et al., Nat. Phys. 13, 943 (2017)], without any free parameters. We calculate the dynamic structure factor as functions of temperature and transferred momentum, and determine the temperature evolution of the phonon damping rate, by considering the dominant decay process of the phonon mode via scatterings off fermionic quasiparticles. These predictions can be confronted with future Bragg scattering experiments on a unitary Fermi gas near the superfluid transition.
Strongly interacting two-dimensional Fermi systems are one of the great remaining challenges in many-body physics due to the interplay of strong local correlations and enhanced long-range fluctuations. Here, we probe the thermodynamic and transport properties of a 2D Fermi gas across the BEC-BCS crossover by studying the propagation and damping of sound modes. We excite particle currents by imprinting a phase step onto homogeneous Fermi gases trapped in a box potential and extract the speed of sound from the frequency of the resulting density oscillations. We measure the speed of sound across the BEC-BCS crossover and compare the resulting dynamic measurement of the equation of state both to a static measurement based on recording density profiles and to quantum Monte Carlo calculations and find reasonable agreement between all three. We also measure the damping of the sound mode, which is determined by the shear and bulk viscosities as well as the thermal conductivity of the gas. We find that the damping is minimal in the strongly interacting regime and the diffusivity approaches the universal quantum bound ℏ/m of a perfect fluid.
Recently there has been renewed interest in second sound in superfluid Bose and Fermi gases. By using two-fluid hydrodynamic theory, we review the density response $\chi_{nn}(\bq,\omega)$ of these systems as a tool to identify second sound in experiments based on density probes. Our work generalizes the well-known studies of the dynamic structure factor $S(\bq,\omega)$ in superfluid 4He in the critical region. We show that, in the unitary limit of uniform superfluid Fermi gases, the relative weight of second vs. first sound in the compressibility sum rule is given by the Landau--Placzek ratio $\lp\equiv (\bar{c}_p-\bar{c}_v)/\bar{c}_v$ for all temperatures below Tc. In contrast to superfluid 4He, $\lp$ is much larger in strongly interacting Fermi gases, being already of order unity for T∼0.8Tc, thereby providing promising opportunities to excite second sound with density probes. The relative weights of first and second sound are quite different in $S(\bq,\omega)$ (measured in pulse propagation studies) as compared to $\mathrm{Im}\chi_{nn}(\bq,\omega)$ (measured in two-photon Bragg scattering). We show that first and second sound in $S(\bq,\omega)$ in a strongly interacting Bose-condensed gas are similar to those in a Fermi gas at unitarity. However, in a weakly interacting Bose gas, first and second sound are mainly uncoupled oscillations of the thermal cloud and condensate, respectively, and second sound has most of the spectral weight in $S(\bq,\omega)$. We also discuss the behaviour of the superfluid and normal fluid velocity fields involved in first and second sound.
Recently, there has been renewed interest in second sound in superfluid Bose and Fermi gases. By using two-fluid hydrodynamic theory, we review the density response χ nn ( q , ω) of these systems as a tool to identify second sound in experiments based on density probes. Our work generalizes the well-known studies of the dynamic structure factor S ( q , ω) in superfluid 4 He in the critical region. We show that, in the unitary limit of uniform superfluid Fermi gases, the relative weight of second versus first sound in the compressibility sum rule is given by the Landau–Placzek ratio for all temperatures below T c . In contrast to superfluid 4 He, LP is much larger in strongly interacting Fermi gases, being already of order unity for T ∼0.8 T c , thereby providing promising opportunities to excite second sound with density probes. The relative weights of first and second sound are quite different in S ( q , ω) (measured in pulse propagation studies) as compared with Imχ nn ( q , ω) (measured in two-photon Bragg scattering). We show that first and second sound in S ( q , ω) in a strongly interacting Bose-condensed gas are similar to those in a Fermi gas at unitarity. However, in a weakly interacting Bose gas, first and second sound are mainly uncoupled oscillations of the thermal cloud and condensate, respectively, and second sound has most of the spectral weight in S ( q , ω). We also discuss the behaviour of the superfluid and normal fluid velocity fields involved in first and second sound.
Abstract This chapter is devoted to discussing relevant dynamical and superfluid phenomena exhibited by interacting Fermi gases at low temperatures, with special focus on the strongly interacting Fermi gas at unitarity. The chapter discusses the predictions of hydrodynamic theory concerning the propagation of sound, the collective oscillations and the expansion of the gas after release of the trap. The Landau criterion for superfluidity and the behaviour of the dynamic structure factor are discussed. It also provides some considerations on the radiofrequency transitions as a method to observe pair-breaking transitions and to measure the pairing gap. The chapter discusses the behaviour of two-fluid hydrodynamics and the propagation of second sound as a tool to measure the superfluid density of interacting Fermi gases. It finally provides a brief summary of the rotational properties of the superfluid Fermi gas, like the quenching of the moment of inertia and the occurrence of quantized vortices.