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Physical Review

Theory of a Superfluid Fermi Liquid. II. Collective Oscillations

A. J. Leggett

Published Jul 8, 1966• 88 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The long-wavelength, low-frequency "collisionless" collective oscillations of a superfluid Fermi liquid are studied throughout the region $0<T<{T}_{c}$ with the help of a field-theoretic formalism developed in a previous paper. It is found that any collective mode (other than the density fluctuation) that is possible in the normal phase persists below ${T}_{c}$ as an oscillation of the normal component, but disappears at some finite temperature which in general depends on the Landau interaction parameters ${F}_{0}$,${F}_{1}$,${Z}_{0}$, etc. The behavior of the density-fluctuation mode depends critically on ${F}_{0}$, if the latter is negative, there is a well-defined collective oscillation only for $T\ensuremath{\ll}{T}_{c}$, while if it is small and positive, the oscillation is well defined for $T\ensuremath{\ll}{T}_{c}$ and $T\ensuremath{-}{T}_{c}\ensuremath{\ll}{T}_{c}$ but not in the intermediate region. If ${F}_{0}$ is large and positive, the density-fluctuation collective mode exists throughout the whole region $0<T<{T}_{c}$ and its velocity is approximately temperature-independent.

DOI
10.1103/physrev.147.119

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The long-wavelength, low-frequency "collisionless" collective oscillations of a superfluid Fermi liquid are studied throughout the region 0<T<Tc0<T<{T}_{c}0<T<Tc​ with the help of a field-theoretic formalism developed in a previous paper. It is found that any collective mode (other than the density fluctuation) that is possible in the normal phase persists below Tc{T}_{c}Tc​ as an oscillation of the normal component, but disappears at some finite temperature which in general depends on the Landau interaction parameters F0{F}_{0}F0​,F1{F}_{1}F1​,Z0{Z}_{0}Z0​, etc. The behavior of the density-fluctuation mode depends critically on F0{F}_{0}F0​, if the latter is negative, there is a well-defined collective oscillation only for T\ensuremath≪TcT\ensuremath{\ll}{T}_{c}T\ensuremath≪Tc​, while if it is small and positive, the oscillation is well defined for T\ensuremath≪TcT\ensuremath{\ll}{T}_{c}T\ensuremath≪Tc​ and T\ensuremath−Tc\ensuremath≪TcT\ensuremath{-}{T}_{c}\ensuremath{\ll}{T}_{c}T\ensuremath−Tc​\ensuremath≪Tc​ but not in the intermediate region. If F0{F}_{0}F0​ is large and positive, the density-fluctuation collective mode exists throughout the whole region 0<T<Tc0<T<{T}_{c}0<T<Tc​ and its velocity is approximately temperature-independent.
The microscopic theory of a superfluid Fermi liquid at finite temperature is developed for the case of a pure system with SSS-wave pairing, and applied to the calculation of the static properties. As a function of $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\equiv}\frac{T}{{T}_{c}}$ these properties are determined entirely by the Landau parameters F0{F}_{0}F0​, F1{F}_{1}F1​, Z0{Z}_{0}Z0​, etc., characterizing quasiparticle interactions in the normal phase. In particular the spin susceptibility $\ensuremath{\chi}$ and the density of the normal component ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}$ are given by $\frac{\ensuremath{\chi}(\ensuremath{\theta})}{\ensuremath{\chi}(1)}=(1+\frac{1}{4}{Z}_{0})\frac{f(\ensuremath{\theta})}{[1+\frac{1}{4}{Z}_{0}f(\ensuremath{\theta})]},$ $\frac{{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}}{\ensuremath{\rho}}=(1+\frac{1}{3}{F}_{1})\frac{f(\ensuremath{\theta})}{[1+\frac{1}{3}{F}_{1}f(\ensuremath{\theta})]},$ where the universal function $f(\ensuremath{\theta})\ensuremath{\equiv}\ensuremath{-}{[\ensuremath{\nu}(0)]}^{\ensuremath{-}1}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathrm{p}}(\frac{\mathrm{dn}}{d{E}_{\mathrm{p}}})$ is the "effective density of states near the Fermi surface" relative to its value $\ensuremath{\nu}(0)$ in the normal phase. Thus the often-quoted expression ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}=\frac{1}{3}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathrm{p}}{\mathrm{p}}^{2}(\frac{\mathrm{dn}}{d{E}_{\mathrm{p}}})$ is valid for an interacting system only in the limit $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$. In the latter part of the paper a simple phenomenological theory of "Fermi-liquid" effects on $\ensuremath{\chi}$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}$ is developed for arbitrary conditions (including the presence of impurities and pairing with $l\ensuremath{\ne}0$); it is found that under most circumstances explicit expressions for $\ensuremath{\chi}$ and ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}$ may be obtained which involve only the Landau parameters and a suitably generalized effective density of states. The theory should apply to the possible superfluid phase of He3{\mathrm{He}}^{3}He3 and to most superconductors. It is suggested that the Knight shift in nontransition-metal superconductors should display some "Fermi-liquid" effects. The weak-field dc penetration depth $\ensuremath{\lambda}(T)$ is shown to be insensitive to such effects both in the Pippard limit and near Tc{T}_{c}Tc​; however, in a London superconductor at lower temperatures the correction to $\ensuremath{\lambda}(T)$ should be observable and yield a direct estimate of F1{F}_{1}F1​.
This thesis theoretically deals with collective modes in the normal phase of a Bose-Fermi mixture composed of single-species bosons and single-species fermions.The mixture is experimentally established as an ultracold atomic gas.While the community studies the mixture including a superfluid phase, relevant to Bose-Einstein condensation of bosons and Cooper paring of fermions, dynamical behaviors in the normal phase have been not fully understood so that we are interested in.We consider the mixture in both spatially uniform and harmonically trapped systems with the Boltzmann equation at finite temperatures.We perform the analysis under the assumption that the physical quantities are near to equilibrium.After the linerization, we apply the moment method to the equation, obtaining a closed set of coupled equations to describe sound or oscillation.The collisional property of the system characterizes the collective modes in the sense of the hydrodynamic regime, collisionless regime, and transition between these regimes.In the uniform system, we investigate sound mode and the dynamic density structure factor.With decreasing temperature, we find that the sound velocity deviates from that of the hydrodynamic mode.Even at a temperature much lower than the Fermi temperature, the sound velocity does not reach the collisionless limit analogous to the zero sound in a Fermi system.However, we show the existence of a long-lived sound at a low temperature as distinct from the first and zero sounds.Nature of the long-lived sound seems to be originated by Pauli blocking of fermions; this statistical effect makes the interspecies collision suppress in the Bose-Fermi mixture.In the trapped system, we mainly study dipole oscillation.We consistently define the relaxation time originated by the interspecies scattering.We find that two oscillating modes in the collisionless regime have distinct fates in the hydrodynamic regime; one collisionless mode shows a crossover to a hydrodynamic in-phase mode, and the other collisionless mode shows a transition to two purely-damped modes.We show the time evolution of the three types of hydrodynamic modes with suitable initial conditions.We discuss temperature dependence of the dipole modes.We observe that the relaxation time dominates the dependence compared to the mean-field contribution.We also observe the nonmonotonic behavior of the relaxation time when Pauli blocking of fermions is not negligible.i List of Figures 1.1 Two schematic images of collisions with a period of oscillation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Measurement of the zero sound in pure liquid 3 He . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3 Transition between the first sound and the zero sound in a two-component Fermi gas . . . 3 1.4 Dipole oscillations of the two-component gas of 40 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.5 Frequencies of dipole mode in the two-component gas of 40 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.6 Damping times of dipole mode in the two-component gas of 40 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.7 Dipole oscillations of the mixture of 87 Rb and 40 K in the hydrodynamic regime . . . . . . .6 1.8 Dipole oscillations of the mixture of 87 Rb and 40 K in the deeper hydrodynamic regime . . .6 1.9 Dipole oscillations of the mixture of 87 Rb and 40 K in the collisionless regime . . . . . . . .7 2.1 Results obtained by solving the coupled moment equations for sound mode . . . . . . . . .26 3.1 Time evolution of the center-of-mass positions and velocity fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 3.2 Dipole modes as a function of the relaxation time with N B = N F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 3.3 Dipole modes as a function of the relaxation time with N B /N F = 0.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 3.4 Ratio of the displacement of the center of mass to the velocity field as a function of the relaxation time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
We study the phononic collective modes of the pairing field and their corresponding signature in both the order-parameter and density response functions for a superfluid Fermi gas at all temperatures below Tc{T}_{c}Tc​ in the collisionless regime. The spectra of collective modes are calculated within the Gaussian pair fluctuation approximation. We deal with the coupling of these modes to the fermionic continuum of quasiparticle-quasihole excitations by performing a nonperturbative analytic continuation of the pairing field propagator. At low temperature, we recover the known exponential temperature dependence of the damping rate and velocity shift of the Anderson-Bogoliubov branch. In the vicinity of Tc{T}_{c}Tc​, we find analytically a weakly damped collective mode whose velocity vanishes with a critical exponent of 1/21/21/2, and whose quality factor diverges logarithmically with ${T}_{c}\ensuremath{-}T$, thereby clarifying an existing debate in the literature [Andrianov and Popov, Theor. Math. Phys. 28, 829 (1976); Ohashi and Takada, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 66, 2437 (1997)]. A transition between these two phononic branches is visible at intermediary temperatures, particularly in the BCS limit where the phase-phase response function displays two maxima.
We study the collective excitation and stability of superfluid Fermi gases flowing with a constant velocity in three-dimensional free space. In particular, we investigate a possible gapless superfluid state induced by the superflow using the mean-field theory and the generalized random-phase approximation (GRPA). For weak attractive interactions, we find that the mean-field superfluid order parameter can take a nonzero value even after the superflow velocity exceeds the threshold for the onset of Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitations. Since the Cooper pairs are only partially broken by the quasiparticle excitations, a gapless superfluid state can be formed over a certain range of superflow velocity above the pair-breaking onset. In addition to the usual quasiparticle-pair continuum and the Anderson-Bogoliubov collective mode, the GRPA excitation spectrum of the gapless superfluid state has a quasiparticle-quasihole continuum and a second collective mode. We find that the long-wavelength excitations of the second collective mode eventually cause dynamical instability of the system when the superflow velocity increases. However, the gapless superfluid state still remains stable in a narrow but finite range of superflow velocity.
We use kinetic-theory methods to analyze Landau Fermi-liquid theory, and in particular to investigate the number and nature of modes in Fermi liquids that are soft in the long-wavelength limit, both in the hydrodynamic and the collisionless regimes. In the hydrodynamic regime we show that Fermi-liquid theory is consistent with Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics at all temperatures, as expected. The soft modes are the ones familiar from classical hydrodynamics that are controlled by the five conservation laws; namely, two first-sound modes, two shear diffusion modes, and one heat diffusion mode. These modes have a particle-like spectrum and are soft, or scale invariant, at all temperatures. In the collisionless regime we show that the entire single-particle distribution function is soft with a continuous part of the spectrum. This continuous soft mode, which is well known but often not emphasized, has important physical consequences, e.g., for certain quantum phase transitions. In addition, there are the well-known soft zero-sound excitations that describe angular fluctuations of the Fermi surface; their spectra are particle-like. They are unrelated to conservation laws, acquire a mass at any nonzero temperature, and their number depends on the strength of the quasiparticle interaction. We also discuss the fates of these two families of soft modes as the temperature changes. With increasing temperature the size of the collisionless regime shrinks, the damping of the modes grows, and eventually all of the collisionless modes become overdamped. In their stead the five hydrodynamic modes appear in the hydrodynamic regime at asymptotically low frequencies. The two families of soft modes are unrelated and have very different physical origins. In charged Fermi liquids the first-sound modes in the hydrodynamic regime and the $\ensuremath{\ell}=0$ zero-sound modes in the collisionless regime get replaced by plasmons, all other modes remain soft.
At finite temperature, the hydrodynamic collective modes of superfluid trapped Fermi gases are coupled to the motion of the normal component, which in the BCS limit behaves like a collisionless normal Fermi gas. The coupling between the superfluid and the normal components is treated in the framework of a semiclassical transport theory for the quasiparticle-distribution function, combined with a hydrodynamic equation for the collective motion of the superfluid component. We develop a numerical test-particle method for solving these equations in the linear-response regime. As a first application we study the temperature dependence of the collective quadrupole mode of a Fermi gas in a spherical trap. The coupling between the superfluid collective motion and the quasiparticles leads to a rather strong damping of the hydrodynamic mode already at very low temperatures. At higher temperatures the spectrum has a two-peak structure, the second peak corresponding to the quadrupole mode in the normal phase.