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arXiv:2003.00156 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Superfluid-normal quantum phase transitions in an imbalanced Fermi gas

Heron Caldas

Published Jan 27, 2020• 2 citations
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Abstract

Abstract We investigate the superfluid-to-normal zero temperature quantum phase transitions of asymmetric two-component Fermi gases as a function of the chemical potential imbalance h . The calculations are performed for homogeneous and trapped imbalanced systems. We concentrate at unitarity, characterized by a divergent interaction parameter k F a , where most of the current experiments are realized. For homogeneous systems, we determine the critical chemical potential imbalance h c at which possible phase transitions occur. In the case of trapped gases, we show how h c can be consistently determined from experimental observations.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/ab7078

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•Jan 1, 2013•38 citations
Abstract We investigate the superfluid-to-normal zero temperature quantum phase transitions of asymmetric two-component Fermi gases as a function of the chemical potential imbalance h . The calculations are performed for homogeneous and trapped imbalanced systems. We concentrate at unitarity, characterized by a divergent interaction parameter k F a , where most of the current experiments are realized. For homogeneous systems, we determine the critical chemical potential imbalance h c at which possible phase transitions occur. In the case of trapped gases, we show how h c can be consistently determined from experimental observations.
In this chapter the recent theoretical work on phase transition in imbalanced fermion superfluids is reviewed. The imbalanced systems are those in which the two fermionic species candidate to form pairing have different Fermi surfaces or densities. We consider systems subjected to weak interactions. In this scenario two distinct phase transitions are predicted to occur. A thermodynamical phase transition, induced by the temperature (T), and a quantum phase transition as a function of the increasing chemical potentials asymmetry, that takes place at zero temperature. We also briefly discuss some recent experimental work at non-zero T with imbalanced Fermi gases in cold atomic traps.
We study the zero temperature ground state of a two-dimensional atomic Fermi gas with chemical potential and population imbalance in the mean-field approximation. All calculations are performed in terms of the two-body binding energy B , whose variation allows one to investigate the evolution from the BEC to the BCS regimes. By means of analytical and exact expressions we show that, similarly to what is found in three dimensions, at fixed chemical potentials, BCS is the ground state until the critical imbalance h c , after which there is a first-order phase transition to the normal state. We find that h c , the Chandrasekhar–Clogston limit of superfluidity, has the same value as in three-dimensional systems. We show that for a fixed ratio B / F , where F is the two-dimensional Fermi energy, as the density imbalance m is increased from zero, the ground state evolves from BCS to phase separation to the normal state. At the critical imbalance m c , phase separation is not supported and the normal phase is energetically preferable. The BCS–BEC crossover is discussed in balanced and imbalanced configurations. Possible pictures of what may be found experimentally in these systems are also shown. We also investigate the necessary conditions for the existence of bound states in the balanced and imbalanced normal phase.
We investigated possible superfluid phases at finite temperature in a two-component Fermi gas with density imbalance. In the frame of a general four-fermion interaction theory, we solved in the BCS region the gap equations for the pairing gap and pairing momentum under the restriction of fixed number densities and analyzed the stability of different phases by calculating the superfluid density and number susceptibilities. The homogeneous superfluid is stable only at high temperature and low number asymmetry, the inhomogeneous Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fudde-Ferrell state survives at low temperature and high number asymmetry, and in between them there exists another possible inhomogeneous phase, that of phase separation. The critical temperatures and the orders of the phase transitions among the superfluid phases and normal phase are calculated analytically and numerically. The phase diagram we obtained in the temperature and number asymmetry plane is quite different from the one in the temperature and chemical potential difference plane for a system with fixed chemical potentials.
A detailed description is given of the phase diagram for a two-component unitary Fermi gas with mass and population imbalance, for both homogeneous and trapped systems. This aims at providing quantitative benchmarks for the normal-to-superfluid phase transition of a mass-imbalanced Fermi gas in the temperature-polarization parameter space. A self-consistent ttt-matrix approach is adopted, which has already proven to accurately describe the thermodynamic properties of the mass- and population-balanced unitary Fermi gas. Our results provide a guideline for the ongoing experiments on heteronuclear Fermi mixtures.
We analyze the zero temperature phase diagram for an asymmetric two-component Fermi gas as a function of mass anisotropy and population imbalance. We identify regions corresponding to normal, or uniform/non-uniform superfluid phases, and discuss topological quantum phase transitions in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS), unitarity and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) limits. Lastly, we derive the zero temperature low frequency and long wavelength collective excitation spectrum, and recover the Bogoliubov relation for weakly interacting dilute bosons in the BEC limit.
We consider imbalanced Fermi gases with strong attractive interactions, for which Cooper-pair formation plays an important role. The two-component mix-tures consist either of identical fermionic atoms in two different hyperfine states, or of two different atomic species both occupying only a single hyperfine state. In both cases, the number of atoms for each component is allowed to be differ-ent, which leads to a spin imbalance, or spin polarization. Two different atomic species also lead to a mass imbalance. Imbalanced Fermi gases are relevant to condensed-matter physics, nuclear physics and astroparticle physics. They have been studied intensively in recent years, following their experimental realization in ultracold atomic Fermi gases. The experimental control in such a system allows for a systematic study of the equation of state and the phase diagram as a function of temperature, spin polarization and interaction strength. In this re-view, we discuss the progress in understanding strongly-interacting imbalanced Fermi gases, where a main goal is to describe the results of the highly controlled experiments. We start by discussing Feshbach resonances, after which we treat the imbalanced Fermi gas in mean-field theory to give an introduction to the relevant physics. We encounter several unusual superfluid phases, including phase-separation, gapless Sarma superfluidity, and supersolidity. To obtain a more quantitative description of the experiments, we review also more sophisti-cated techniques, such as diagrammatic methods and the renormalization-group theory. We end the review by discussing two theoretical approaches to treat the inhomogeneous imbalanced Fermi gas, namely the Landau-Ginzburg theory and the Bogoliubov-de Gennes approach. Key words: