We calculate, to second order in the scattering length between two fermions, the Landau quasiparticle interaction for a low-density mixture of two fermion species with unequal densities at temperature zero. From the Landau parameters we evaluate the energy density and find agreement with the result of Kanno []. The calculations are then extended to the case of two fermion components with different total densities, each with two spin components, a situation of interest in nuclear physics and astrophysics, where the species are neutrons and protons. An interesting finding is that, for low proton concentrations, x ≪ 1 , the leading term in the energy density, beyond the x 5 / 3 contribution from the kinetic energy and the x 2 one due to the two-body interaction in the mean-field approximation, varies as x 7 / 3 ln x . This is to be contrasted with the higher powers of x implicit in many phenomenological energy-density functionals employed in nuclear physics, such as those of the Skyrme type.
Finding the distinct features of the crossover from the regime of large overlapping Cooper pairs to the limit of non-overlapping pairs of fermions (Shafroth pairs) in multi-component Fermi systems remains a topical problem in a quantum many-body theory. Here this transition is studied by calculating the two-body density, spin and isospin correlation functions in dilute two-component Fermi superfluid, taking as an example an infinite system of protons and neutrons (nuclear matter). It is shown that criterion of the crossover [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 090402 (2005)], formulated for ultracold fermionic atomic gases and consisting in the change of the sign of the density correlation function at low momentum transfer, fails to describe correctly the density-driven BEC–BCS transition at finite isospin asymmetry or finite temperature. As an unambiguous signature of the BEC–BCS transition, one can use the presence (BCS regime) or absence (BEC regime) of the singularity in the momentum distribution of the quasiparticle density of states.
We study the zero-energy collision of three fermions, two of which are in the spin-down ($\ensuremath{\downarrow}$) state and one of which is in the spin-up ($\ensuremath{\uparrow}$) state. Assuming that the two-body and three-body interactions have a finite range, we find a parameter
D called the three-body scattering hypervolume. We study the three-body wave function asymptotically when three fermions are far apart or one spin-$\ensuremath{\uparrow}$ (spin-$\ensuremath{\downarrow}$) fermion and one pair, formed by the other two fermions, are far apart and derive three asymptotic expansions of the wave function. The three-body scattering hypervolume
D appears in the coefficients of such expansions at the order of ${B}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$, where
B=[(s12+s22+s32)/2]1/2 is the hyperradius of the triangle formed by the three fermions (we assume that the three fermions have the same mass), and
s1,s2,s3 are the sides of the triangle. We compute the
T-matrix element for three such fermions colliding at low energy in terms of
D in the absence of two-body interactions. When the interactions are weak, we calculate
D approximately using the Born expansion. We also analyze the energy shift of three two-component fermions in a large periodic cube due to
D and generalize this result to the many-fermion system.
D also determines the three-body recombination rates in two-component Fermi gases, and we calculate the three-body recombination rates in terms of
D and the density and temperature of the gas.
Fermionic matter is ubiquitous in nature, from the electrons in metals and semiconductors or the neutrons in the inner crust of neutron stars, to gases of fermionic atoms, like 40K or 6Li that can be created and studied under laboratory conditions. It is especially interesting to study these systems at very low temperatures, where we enter the world of quantum mechanical phenomena. Due to the Fermi-Dirac statistics, a dilute system of spin-polarised fermions exhibits no interactions and can be viewed as an ideal Fermi gas. However, interactions play a crucial role for fermions of several spin species. This thesis addresses several questions concerning interacting Fermi gases, in particular the transition between the normal and the superfluid phase and dynamical properties at higher temperatures. First we will look at the unitary Fermi gas: a two-component system of fermions interacting with divergent scattering length. This system is particularly interesting as it exhibits universal behaviour. Due to the strong interactions perturbation theory is inapplicable and no exact theoretical description is available. I will describe the Determinant Diagrammatic Monte Carlo algorithm with which the unitary Fermi gas can be studied from first principles. This algorithm fails in the presence of a spin imbalance (unequal number of particles in the two components) due to a sign problem. I will show how to apply reweighting techniques to generalise the algorithm to the imbalanced case, and present results for the critical temperature and other thermodynamic observables at the critical point, namely the chemical potential, the energy per particle and the contact density. These are the first numerical results for the imbalanced unitary Fermi gas at finite temperature. I will also show how temperatures beyond the critical point can be accessed and present results for the equation of state and the temperature dependence of the contact density. At sufficiently high temperatures a semiclassical description captures all relevant physical features of the system. The dynamics of an interacting Fermi gas can then be studied via a numerical simulation of the Boltzmann equation. I will describe such a numerical setup and apply it to study the collision of two spin-polarised fermionic clouds. When the two components are separated in an elongated harmonic trap and then released, they collide and for sufficiently strong interactions can bounce off each other several times. I will discuss the different types of the qualitative behaviour, show how they can be interpreted in terms of the equilibrium properties of the system, and explain how they relate to the coupling between different excitation modes. I will also demonstrate how transport coefficients, for instance the spin drag, can be extracted from the numerical data.
We study the Fermi liquid properties of a single component Fermi gas with p-wave interactions. In the weak repulsive limit, we obtain exact perturbative expansions for the ground state energy, the chemical potential, and the effective mass of the Landau quasiparticle up to second order in scattering volume a. We also calculated the corresponding Landau functions and Landau parameters and show that they satisfy the general Fermi liquid identities. Using the Landau transport equation, we show that undamped zero sound only appears in the second order in scattering volume, in contrast to the s-wave case.
We consider a mixture of two-component Fermi gases at low temperature. The density profile of this degenerate Fermi gas is calculated under the semiclassical approximation. The results show that the fermion-fermion interactions make a large correction to the density profile at low temperature. The phase separation of such a mixture is also discussed for both attractive and repulsive interatomic interactions, and the numerical calculations demonstrate the existance of a stable temperature region T c1 < T < T c2 for the mixture. In addition, we give the critical temperature of the BCS-type transition in this system beyond the semiclassical approximation.
This report concerns the energy of a zero-temperature many-body system of spin 1/2 fermions interacting via a two-body potential with a free space infinite scattering length and zero effective range; the Unitary limit. Given the corresponding phase-shift
δ(k)=π/2 a one-term separable potential is obtained by inverse scattering assuming a momentum cut-off
Λ such that
δ(k)=0 for
k>Λ. The \it effective \rm interaction in the many-body system is calculated in a pp-ladder approximation with Pauli-blocking but neglecting mean-field (dispersion) corrections; effective mass
m∗=1. Using only the zero relative momentum component of this interaction the total energy is
ξ=4/9 (in units of the fermigas), a result reported by several previous authors. Integrating the momentum dependent interaction over the Fermi sea this energy is revised to
ξ=0.24. This result is independent of density and of the cut-off
Λ if
Λ>∼3kf. With
m∗=1 there is however a strong dependence on this cut-off. Including hh-ladders estimates give
ξ=0.4↔0.6, but a reliable result would in this case require a Green's function calculation.