Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Bose-Fermi Mixtures

Daniele C. E. Bortolotti

Published Jan 1, 2007• 2 citations

Abstract

In the wake of successful experiments in Fermi condensates, experimental attention is broadening to include resonant interactions in degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures. In this thesis we wish to study the equilibrium properties of the fermionic molecules that can be created in such a mixture. To this end, we first discuss the two body properties of the system, and introduce the model Hamiltonian we use to describe the resonant physics, highlighting its virtues, as well as its limitations. We then proceed by analyzing the mean field solution of this model, by studying both the equilibrium problem, and the non-equilibrium equations of motion, thus developing a powerful language to discuss the system. We then highlight the limitations of the mean-field approach, and develop a numerically tractable generalized version of this theory, which is able to correctly describe the two-body properties of the system in the low-density limit. Finally, we study the properties of the system using this generalized mean-field theory, by first analyzing the two-body scattering matrix in the many-body environment, assessing its complex poles in order to understand the stability properties of the Feshbach molecules in the gas. Secondly we solve the equilibrium equations self-consistently, to study the molecular populations and density distributions at equilibrium, as a function of external bias magnetic field.

Related papers

Stability of fermionic Feshbach molecules in a Bose-Fermi mixture

А. V. Avdeenkov, Daniele C. E. Bortolotti, John L. Bohn

In the wake of successful experiments in Fermi condensates, experimental attention is broadening to study resonant interactions in degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures. Here, we consider the properties and stability of the fermionic molecules that can be created in such a mixture near a Feshbach resonance. To do this, we consider the two-body scattering matrix in the many-body environment, and assess its complex poles. The stability properties of these molecules strongly depend on their center-of-mass motion, because they must satisfy Fermi statistics. At low center-of-mass momenta the molecules are more stable than in the absence of the environment (due to Pauli-blocking effects), while at high center-of-mass momenta nontrivial many-body effects render them somewhat less stable.

arXiv:cond-mat/0604006Physical Review AJul 13, 200619 citations

Generalized mean-field approach to a resonant Bose-Fermi mixture

Daniele C. E. Bortolotti, А. V. Avdeenkov, John L. Bohn

We formulate a generalized mean-field theory of a mixture of fermionic and bosonic atoms, in which the fermion-boson interaction can be controlled by a Feshbach resonance. The theory correctly accounts for molecular binding energies of the molecules in the two-body limit, in contrast to the most straightforward mean-field theory. Using this theory, we discuss the equilibrium properties of fermionic molecules created from atom pairs in the gas. We also address the formation of molecules when the magnetic field is ramped across the resonance, and we present a simple Landau-Zener result for this process.

arXiv:0809.2354Physical Review ADec 17, 200818 citations

Bose–Fermi mixtures near an interspecies Feshbach resonance: testing a non-equilibrium approach

Daniele C E Bortolotti, А. V. Avdeenkov, Christopher Ticknor +1 more

We test a non equilibrium approach to study the behavior of a Bose-Fermi mixture of alkali atoms in the presence of a Feshbach resonance between bosons and fermions. To this end we derive the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) equations of motion for, the interacting system. This approach has proven very successful in the study of resonant systems composed of Bose particles and Fermi particles. However, when applied to a Bose-Fermi mixture, the HFB theory fails to identify even the correct binding energy of molecules in the appropriate limit. Through a more rigorous analysis we are able to ascribe this difference to the peculiar role that bosonic depletion plays in the Bose-Fermi pair correlation, which is the mechanism through which molecules are formed. We therefore conclude that molecular formation in Bose-Fermi mixtures is driven by three point and higher order correlations in the gas, unlike any other resonant system studied in the context of ultra-cold atomic physics.

arXiv:cond-mat/0505355Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical PhysicsDec 14, 20059 citations

Studies of a Quantum Degenerate Fermionic Lithium Gas

Zoran Hadzibabic

The work described in this thesis can be divided into two parts. The first part is concerned with the production of degenerate Fermi gases and Bose-Fermi mixtures. The second part of the thesis describes studies of strongly interacting spin-mixtures of ultracold fermions. We have cooled a magnetically trapped spin-polarized 6Li Fermi gas into quantum degeneracy by sympathetic cooling with bosonic 23Na. In order to do this, we have converted our previously developed apparatus for Bose-Einstein condensation of 23Na into a two-species cooling facility. We have produced 6Li samples with up to 7 × 107 atoms at temperatures below 0.5TF , and up to 3× 107 atoms at temperatures as low as 0.05TF . Further, we have also produced stable quantum degenerate mixtures of 23Na and 6Li, with several million atoms of each species. In a second set of experiments, we have studied strongly interacting spin-mixtures of 6Li. The strength of interactions was resonantly controlled by applying a magnetic field and tuning to “Feshbach resonances”, which occur when the total energy of the colliding particles coincides with the energy of a bound molecular state. These studies are relevant for the continuing quest for a superfluid transition in a Fermi gas. By studying the inelastic decay of the cloud, we have experimentally identified two Feshbach resonances for the inter-state interactions of the two lowest ground states of 6Li. Most importantly, we found that the lifetime of the strongly interacting system is long enough to observe a superfluid transition in the future. The effects of the coherent collisions in 6Li spin-mixtures were studied using radiofrequency (RF) spectroscopy. We demonstrated the absence of mean field “clock shifts” in a two-state mixture of fermions, and have introduced a three-level method to observe the interaction energy shifts. In the strongly interacting regime, near a Feshbach resonance, we have observed universal behavior of the interaction energy, independent of the value of the scattering length. Finally, we have theoretically studied the effects of Pauli blocking during a free expansion of a degenerate Fermi gas. We have concluded that a strongly interacting normal gas will undergo a hydrodynamic expansion even at zero temperature, due to inefficiency of the Pauli suppression of collisions. Therefore, the already observed hydrodynamic expansion cannot be conclusively interpreted as a signature of superfluidity. Thesis Supervisor: Wolfgang Ketterle Title: John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics

Jan 1, 20035 citations

Cold quantum gases with resonant interactions

Bout Marcelis

We study ultracold gases of alkali-metal atoms in the quantum degenerate regime. The interatomic interactions in these type of systems can be tuned using resonances induced by magnetic or electric fields. The tunability of the interactions, together with the possibility of confining the atoms with several kinds of external potentials, allows for a completely novel approach to study basic problems in many-body physics, and moreover, allows to enter regimes which have never been accessible in condensed matter or nuclear physics. For example, this has led to the experimental demonstration of an intimate relation between two types of superfluidity: the crossover from Bose-Einstein condensation of tightly bound molecules to the superfluid behavior related to weakly bound BCS-like pairs. Another experimental landmark was reached when the existence of universal Efimov three-body bound states was proven in experiments with ultracold bosonic cesium atoms. In this thesis, we study several aspects of these strongly interacting and ultracold atomic gases. We develop an analytical model that encapsulates all of the relevant scattering physics in atomic systems where open-channel shape resonances and closedchannel Feshbach resonances give rise to complicated and non-trivial scattering properties. This model provides lots of physical insight and is shown to describe important quantities, such as the molecular energies and scattering phase shifts, with a high level of accuracy. The model is compared to full numerical coupled-channel calculations in two atomic systems: rubidium and lithium. We study the BCS-BEC crossover using a many-body description of the ultracold gas that includes the non-trivial energy dependence of the scattering model. We show that it gives rise to superfluid behavior associated with the formation of BCS-like pairs while the low-energy interactions are repulsive in character. The energy dependence of the interactions is crucial, as it gives rise to attractive interactions at the Fermi energy, necessary for the formation of Cooper pairs. We demonstrate new ways of controlling the interatomic interactions using a combination of magnetic and electric fields. This leads to experimental control of, for instance, the three-body parameter in the context of Efimov physics and of non-universal behavior in the BCS-BEC crossover in fermionic gases. Using a four-body method based on first principles, we solve the molecule-molecule scattering problem to calculate several important properties of bosonic and fermionic Summary 145 molecules that consist of light and heavy atoms. These type of molecules are of current experimental interest, and we predict several exciting relations between three- and four-body observables in these type of systems.

Jan 1, 20080 citations

BCS,BEC states and Feshbach resonance in atomic Fermi gases

呂欣頤

To study the behavior of atomic Fermi gases in the vicinity of Feshbach resonance, M. Holland et al. [12] and S. J. J. M. F. Kokkelmans et al. [22] proposed resonance mean field theory in which the molecules formed by Feshbach resonance are considered in the many-body Hamiltonian. Motivated by microscopic scattering theory and resonance mean field theory, we develop a thermodynamic method to study this system. In this method we treat atomic Fermi gases near resoance as a atom-molecule mixture. We can use BCS Hamiltonian and Bose- Einstein statistics to describe the behavior of atoms and molecules respectively. Chemical equilibrium can be achieved between atoms and molecules due to hypefine interaction. We use this method to study the system behavior under different temperature and detuning energy and find that at low temperature a smooth BCS-BEC crossever can occure with decreasing detuning energy. We further calculate a measurable quantity, molecular condensation fraction, and find its behavior matches qualitatively with the experimental result [16].

臺灣大學物理研究所學位論文Jan 1, 20040 citations