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Cambridge University Press eBooks

Bound States and Superfluidity in Strongly Coupled Fermion Systems

GERD RÖPKE

Published Apr 6, 1995• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The two-particle spectrum in a dense Fermion system is treated using a thermodynamic Green function approach. A self-consistent description of possible bound states and a superfluid condensate in a correlated medium is given. A detailed understanding of superfluidity and superconductivity in correlated Fermion systems, especially the transition from the Cooper-paired state (weak-coupling limit) to the Bose condensed state of tightly bound pairs of Fermions (strong coupling limit) [1], is of great interest for very different physical systems. The problem of a unified treatment of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) and the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) phase arises not only in describing the electron structure of strongly correlated electron superfluids such as superconductors [2], the electronhole system in semiconductors [3], spin-polarized hydrogen and liquid He [4], but also in the theory of nuclear matter [5] and quark–gluon systems [6]. Recently, there have been several new approaches to this stimulating problem. A Monte-Carlo simulation of a finite He system at zero temperature has been performed in Ref. [7]. The microscopic theory of strongly coupled quantum fluids has been treated within the Jastrow approximation (cf. Ref. [8]) to obtain the ground state and low-lying excited states of strongly correlated boson quantum fluids. The crossover from weak to strong coupling superconductivity has been considered using a functional integral representation [2] (see also Ref. [7]).

DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511524240.037

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The problem of the evolution from BCS theory with cooperative Cooper pairing to the formation and condensation of composite bosons has attracted considerable attention for the past several decades. It has gained renewed impetus in the mid-eighties with the discovery of the high-Tc superconductors, which have a coherence length comparable to the interparticle spacing. More recently, this subject has spurred a great deal of research activity in connection with experiments involving dilute atomic gases of fermionic atoms. The initial objective of this work will be to use functional integral techniques to analyze the low-temperature BCS-to-BEC evolution of d-wave superconductors within the saddle point (mean field) approximation for a continuum model. Then, the same mathematical formalism will be applied to the problem of the BCS-to-BEC evolution of fully spin-polarized p-wave Fermi gases in two dimensions. We find that a quantum phase transition occurs for both systems as they are driven from the BCS-like regime of weakly interacting fermionic pairs to the opposite BEC-like regime of strongly interacting bosonic molecules. This is in contrast to the smooth crossover predicted and observed in systems that exhibit s-wave pairing symmetry. We calculate several spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties that signal the occurrence of this phase transition, and suggest some possible experimental realizations. Finally, fluctuations about the saddle point solution are included in the calculations, and the effects of such correction are analyzed in the low (T~0) and high (T~Tc) temperature limits. We conclude that, at high temperatures, the bosonic degrees of freedom that arise from two-particle bound states become essential to describe the strong coupling limit,\nas the saddle point approximation alone becomes unreliable.

•Sep 12, 2005•2 citations
The two-particle spectrum in a dense Fermion system is treated using a thermodynamic Green function approach. A self-consistent description of possible bound states and a superfluid condensate in a correlated medium is given. A detailed understanding of superfluidity and superconductivity in correlated Fermion systems, especially the transition from the Cooper-paired state (weak-coupling limit) to the Bose condensed state of tightly bound pairs of Fermions (strong coupling limit) [1], is of great interest for very different physical systems. The problem of a unified treatment of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) and the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) phase arises not only in describing the electron structure of strongly correlated electron superfluids such as superconductors [2], the electronhole system in semiconductors [3], spin-polarized hydrogen and liquid He [4], but also in the theory of nuclear matter [5] and quark–gluon systems [6]. Recently, there have been several new approaches to this stimulating problem. A Monte-Carlo simulation of a finite He system at zero temperature has been performed in Ref. [7]. The microscopic theory of strongly coupled quantum fluids has been treated within the Jastrow approximation (cf. Ref. [8]) to obtain the ground state and low-lying excited states of strongly correlated boson quantum fluids. The crossover from weak to strong coupling superconductivity has been considered using a functional integral representation [2] (see also Ref. [7]).
We study the system of a dilute gas of fermions in 3-dimensions, with attractive interactions tuned to the unitarity point, using the non-perturbative Restricted Path Integral Monte Carlo (R-PIMC) method. The pairing and superfluid properties of this system are calculated at finite temperature. The total energy at very low temperature from our results agrees closely with that of previous ground-state Quantum Monte Carlo calculations. We identify the temperature T � � 0.70ǫF below which pairing correlations develop, and estimate the critical temperature for the superfluid transition Tc � 0.25ǫF from a finite size scaling analysis of the superfluid density. PACS numbers: The recent experiments, starting with generating a degenerate gas of cold atoms[3], the use of Feshbach resonance to tune the effective interaction between the fermions[4, 5], the measurements of the gap to identify a pairing scale[6] and the measurements of vortices[7] to identify the superfluid state, have all given an impetus to the study of superfluidity in the BCS-BEC crossover regime. The nature of superconductivity or superfluidity in a many-particle system with an increasing pairing attraction was shown [1, 2] to interpolate smoothly between the BCS regime for weak attraction between the fermions, and the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) regime for strong coupling. In the weak coupling regime, the Cooper pair size is much larger than the interparticle spacing, and the simultaneous pairing and condensation of fermions is well described by the BCS theory. In the strong coupling regime, fermions form strongly bound bosonic molecules at a pairing temperature scale T ∗ that is considerably higher than the BEC temperature Tc. In a two species system of fermions with an attractive interaction between them, the unitary point is defined by the divergence of the zero energy s-channel scattering length, as, for two particles in free space. The unitary point is interesting since it describes a strongly correlated system with universal properties[8]. In general, there are two length scales that define the system: the interparticle spacing ∝ n −1/3 , and the scattering length as which contains information about the interaction potential. At the unitary point however, since as diverges, all the properties of the system are described by a single length scale k −1
PACS. 03.75.Hh – Static properties of condensates; thermodynamical, statistical and structural properties. PACS. 03.75.Ss – Degenerate Fermi gases. PACS. 05.30.Fk – Fermion systems and electron gas. Abstract. – We present a theory for a superfluid Fermi gas near the BCS-BEC crossover, including pairing fluctuation contributions to the free energy similar to that considered by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink for the normal phase. In the strong coupling limit, our theory is able to recover the Bogoliubov theory of a weakly interacting Bose gas with a molecular scattering length very close to the known exact result. We compare our results with recent Quantum Monte Carlo simulations both for the ground state and at finite temperature. Excellent agreement is found for all interaction strengths where simulation results are available. The recent experimental realization of strongly interacting Fermi gases of 6 Li and 40 K atoms near a Feshbach resonance has opened up the exciting possibility of investigating the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) [1–5]. In these systems, the inter-atomic interaction strength can be varied by tuning
This article gives a detailed review of our current theoretical understanding of the crossover from cooperative Cooper pairing to independent bound-state formation and Bose–Einstein condensation in Fermi systems with increasing attractive interactions. Introduction There are two well-known paradigms for understanding the phenomena of superconductivity and superfluidity: (I) BCS theory [1], in which the normal state is a degenerate Fermi liquid that undergoes a pairing instability at a temperature T c ≪ ε f , the degeneracy scale. The formation of Cooper pairs and their condensation (macroscopic occupation of a single quantum state) both occur simultaneously at the transition temperature T c . (II) Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of bosons at a T c of the order of their degeneracy temperature. At a fundamental level these bosons (for example, 4 He or excitons) are invariably composite objects made up of an even number of fermions. The composite particles form at some very high temperature scale of the order of their dissociation temperature T dissoc , and these “pre-formed” bosons then condense at the BEC T c ≪ T dissoc . In most cases of experimental interest the system under consideration clearly falls into one category or the other. For instance, 3 He is a Fermi superfluid described by (I) whereas 4 He is a Bose superfluid (II). Essentially all cases of superconductivity in metals that we understand reasonably well are much closer to (I) than to (II), as evidenced by the existence of fermionic quasiparticles above T c .
Ultracold atomic gases are a powerful tool to experimentally study strongly correlated quantum many-body systems. In particular, ultracold Fermi gases with tunable interactions have allowed to realize the famous BEC-BCS crossover from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of molecules to a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid of weakly bound Cooper pairs. However, large parts of the excitation spectrum of fermionic superfluids in the BEC-BCS crossover are still unexplored. In this work, we use Bragg spectroscopy to measure the full momentum-resolved low-energy excitation spectrum of strongly interacting ultracold Fermi gases. This enables us to directly observe the smooth transformation from a bosonic to a fermionic superfluid that takes place in the BEC-BCS crossover. We also use our spectra to determine the evolution of the superfluid gap and find excellent agreement with previous experiments and self-consistent T-matrix calculations both in the BEC and crossover regime. However, toward the BCS regime a calculation that includes the effects of particle-hole correlations shows better agreement with our data.
The problem of the evolution from BCS theory with cooperative Cooper pairing to the formation and condensation of composite bosons has attracted considerable attention for the past several decades. It has gained renewed impetus in the mid-eighties with the discovery of the high-Tc superconductors, which have a coherence length comparable to the interparticle spacing. More recently, this subject has spurred a great deal of research activity in connection with experiments involving dilute atomic gases of fermionic atoms. The initial objective of this work will be to use functional integral techniques to analyze the low-temperature BCS-to-BEC evolution of d-wave superconductors within the saddle point (mean field) approximation for a continuum model. Then, the same mathematical formalism will be applied to the problem of the BCS-to-BEC evolution of fully spin-polarized p-wave Fermi gases in two dimensions. We find that a quantum phase transition occurs for both systems as they are driven from the BCS-like regime of weakly interacting fermionic pairs to the opposite BEC-like regime of strongly interacting bosonic molecules. This is in contrast to the smooth crossover predicted and observed in systems that exhibit s-wave pairing symmetry. We calculate several spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties that signal the occurrence of this phase transition, and suggest some possible experimental realizations. Finally, fluctuations about the saddle point solution are included in the calculations, and the effects of such correction are analyzed in the low (T~0) and high (T~Tc) temperature limits. We conclude that, at high temperatures, the bosonic degrees of freedom that arise from two-particle bound states become essential to describe the strong coupling limit,\nas the saddle point approximation alone becomes unreliable.