Instabilities and collective oscillations of atomic Bose-Einstein condensate coexisting with degenerate fermi gas

Cameron S. Fletcher

Christopher P. Search, Han Pu, W. Zhang +1 more

The quasiparticle excitations and dynamical stability of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a quantum degenerate Fermi gas of atoms at zero temperature is studied. The Fermi gas is assumed to be either in the normal state or to have undergone a phase transition to a superfluid state by forming Cooper pairs. The quasiparticle excitations of the Bose-Einstein condensate exhibit a dynamical instability due to a resonant exchange of energy and momentum with quasiparticle excitations of the Fermi gas. The stability regime for the bosons depends on whether the Fermi gas is in the normal state or in the superfluid state. We show that the energy gap in the quasiparticle spectrum for the superfluid state stabilizes the low-energy excitations of the condensate. In the stable regime, we calculate the boson quasiparticle spectrum, which is modified by the fluctuations in the density of the Fermi gas.

JiaJia Chang, Chris Hamner, Peter Engels

Gordon R. M. Robb, P. Johnston, W. J. Firth

Collective scattering of light due to atomic recoil, also known as collective atomic recoil lasing (CARL), occurs when a gas of atoms coherently scatters light from a pump laser via a collective instability. The scattering process can become unstable due to the atoms in the gas recoiling under the influence of the dynamic optical forces which arise due to the interference of the pump and scattered fields. The atoms move to form a spatially periodic density grating, which in turn amplifies the scattered field. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of CARL phenomena in degenerate ultracold gases of bosons and fermions. In the case of bosons i.e. in a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC),the effect of atom-atom interactions due to collisions on the CARL instability in the case of both attractive and repulsive condensates, is investigated. In the case of fermionic gases, the effect of Fermi pressure, is also presented. The linear and nonlinear evolution of the optical field and the atomic momentum distribution are considered for both cases.

Arup Banerjee

R. Combescot, X. Leyronas, M. Yu. Kagan

We investigate within a self-consistent theory the molecular instabilities arising in the normal state of a homogeneous degenerate Fermi gas, covering the whole Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) to BCS crossover. These are the standard instability for molecular formation, the BCS instability which corresponds to the formation of Cooper pairs, and the related Bose-Einstein instability. These instabilities manifest themselves in the properties of the particle-particle vertex, which we calculate in a ladder approximation. To find the critical temperatures corresponding to these various instabilities, we handle the properties of the interacting Fermi gas on the same footing as the instabilities by making use of the same vertex. This approximate treatment is shown to be quite satisfactory in a number of limiting situations where it agrees with known exact results. The results for the BCS critical temperature and for the BE condensation are found to be in fair agreement with earlier results. The threshold for formation of molecules at rest undergoes a sizable shift toward the BEC side, due to quantum effects arising from the presence of the degenerate Fermi gas. This should make its experimental observation fairly easy. This shift remains important at least up to temperatures comparable to the Fermi energy of the gas.