Assuming that two-component Fermi gases with opposite artificial magnetic fields on a square optical lattice are well described by the so-called time-reversal-symmetric Hofstadter-Hubbard model, we explore the thermal superfluid properties along with the critical Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature in this model over a wide range of its parameters. In particular, since our self-consistent BCS-BKT approach takes the multiband butterfly spectrum explicitly into account, it unveils how dramatically the interband contribution to the phase stiffness dominates the intraband one with an increasing interaction strength for any given magnetic flux.
We consider a Fermi gas that is loaded onto a square optical lattice and subjected to a perpendicular artificial magnetic field, and determine its superfluid transition boundary by adopting a BCS-like mean-field approach in momentum space. The multiband structure of the single-particle Hofstadter spectrum is taken explicitly into account while deriving a generalized pairing equation. We present the numerical solutions as functions of the artificial magnetic flux, interaction strength, Zeeman field, chemical potential, and temperature, with a special emphasis on the roles played by the density of single-particle states and center-of-mass momentum of Cooper pairs.
We study the superfluid properties of short-coherence-length superconductors described by the extended Hubbard model with on-site repulsive and intersite attractive interaction. We have analysed the superfluid stiffness and thermodynamic properties of the model versus electron concentration and pairing interaction on a two-dimensional square lattice with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbour hopping. The effects of phase fluctuations on anisotropic superconductivity of extended s-and d x 2 − y 2 -wave type were examined within the Kosterlitz–Thouless (KT) scenario. The KT critical temperatures were determined and compared with those from the BCS–Hartree–Fock approximation. The Uemura-type plots, i.e. the critical temperature versus zero-temperature phase stiffness, were obtained for both extended s- and d-wave pairings. The states with mixed (s ∗ and d x 2 − y 2 ) symmetry, and in particular the time-reversal breaking state of s + id symmetry, were analysed and the phase diagrams taking into account these states are presented. We also briefly discuss the crossover from BCS to local pair superconductivity for the d x 2 − y 2 -wave pairing. A comparison of the theoretical results with the experimental data, in particular those of T c versus λ −2 (0), for high- T c cuprate superconductors is made.
Motivated by recent experiments on atomic Dirac fermions in a tunable honeycomb optical lattice, we study the attractive Hubbard model of superfluidity in the anisotropic honeycomb lattice. At weak coupling, we find that the maximum mean-field pairing transition temperature, as a function of density and interaction strength, occurs for the case with isotropic hopping amplitudes. In this isotropic case, we go beyond mean-field theory and study collective fluctuations, treating both pairing and density fluctuations for interaction strengths ranging from weak to strong coupling. We find evidence for a sharp sound mode, together with a well-defined Leggett mode over a wide region of the phase diagram. We also calculate the superfluid order parameter and collective modes in the presence of nonzero superfluid flow. The flow-induced softening of these collective modes leads to dynamical instabilities involving stripelike density modulations as well as a Leggett-mode instability associated with the natural sublattice symmetry-breaking charge-ordered state on the honeycomb lattice. The latter provides a nontrivial test for the experimental realization of the one-band Hubbard model. We delineate regimes of the phase diagram where the critical current is limited by depairing or by such collective instabilities, and discuss experimental implications of our results.
We model fermions with an attractive interaction in an optical lattice with a single-band Hubbard model away from half-filling with on-site attraction
U and nearest neighbor hopping
t. Our goal is to understand the crossover from BCS superfluidity in the weak attraction limit to the BEC of molecules in the strong attraction limit, with particular emphasis on how this crossover in an optical lattice differs from the much better studied continuum problem. We use a large-
N theory with Sp(2N) symmetry to study the fluctuations beyond mean field theory. At T=0, we calculate across the crossover various observables, including chemical potential, gap, ground state energy, speed of sound and compressibility. The superfluid density
ns is found to have non-trivial
U/t dependence in this lattice system. We show that the transition temperature
Tc scales with the energy gap in the weak coupling limit but crosses over to a
t2/U scaling in the BEC limit, where phase fluctuations controlled by
ns determine
Tc. We also find, quite contrary to our expectations, that in the strong coupling limit, the large-
N theory gives qualitatively wrong trends for compressibility. A comparison with a simple Hartree shifted BCS theory, which takes into account both pairing and Hartree shifts, and correctly recovers the atomic limit and the right qualitative trend for compressibility, reveals that the large-
N theory on the lattice, although considers a larger number of diagrams, is in fact inferior to the simpler Hartree shifted BCS theory. The failure of the large-
N approach is explained by noting (i) the importance of Hartree shift in lattice problems, and (ii) inability of the large-
N approach to treat particle-particle and particle-hole channels at equal footing at the saddle point level.
We investigate the superfluid phase transition in a gas of Fermi atoms loaded on a three-dimensional optical lattice. When the lattice potential is strong, this system can be well described by an attractive Hubbard model. In this model, we calculate the superfluid phase transition temperature
Tc, including both superfluid and (spin and charge) density fluctuations within the self-consistent
t-matrix theory and fluctuation exchange approximation, respectively. Since we treat these fluctuations in a consistent manner, our theory satisfies the required particle-hole symmetry over the entire BCS--Bose-Einstein-condensation (BEC) crossover region. We show that charge density fluctuations compete against superfluid fluctuations near the half-filling, leading to the suppression of
Tc. As a result, the maximum
Tc is obtained away from the half-filling. Since the strong density fluctuations originate from the nesting property of the Fermi surface at the half-filling (which is absent in a uniform gas with no lattice potential), our results would be useful in considering lattice effects on strong-coupling superfluidity.