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Hydrodynamics of unitary Fermi gases

Ryan E. Young

Published Jan 1, 2013• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Unitary fermi gases have been widely studied as they provide a tabletop archetype for research on strongly coupled many body systems and perfect fluids. Research into unitary fermi gases can provide insight into may other strongly interacting systems including high temperature superconductor, quark-gluon plasmas, and neutron stars. Within the unitary regime, the equilibrium transport coefficients and thermodynamic properties are universal functions of density and temperature. Thus, unitary fermi gases provide a archetype to study nonperturbative many-body physics, which is of fundamental significance and crosses several fields.\nThis thesis reports on two topics regarding unitary fermi gases. A recent string theory conjecture gives a lower bound for the dimensionless ratio of shear viscosity of entropy, η=s ≥ 4πℏ =kb. Unitary fermi gases are a candidate for prefect fluids, yet η=s is well above the string theory bound. Using a stochastic formulation of hydrodynamics, we calculate a lower bound for this ratio accounting for the momentum dissipation from fluctuations. This lower bound is in good agreement with both theoretical and experimental results.\nThe second question addressed is the simulation of elliptic flow. Elliptic flow, first observed in 2002, is a characteristic of strongly coupled systems and has been studied in both quark-gluon plasmas and unitary fermi gases. As such, simulations of these systems are of interest. We test a variety of lattice Boltzmann models and compare the simulation results to the theoretical and experimental findings.

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Unitary fermi gases have been widely studied as they provide a tabletop archetype for research on strongly coupled many body systems and perfect fluids. Research into unitary fermi gases can provide insight into may other strongly interacting systems including high temperature superconductor, quark-gluon plasmas, and neutron stars. Within the unitary regime, the equilibrium transport coefficients and thermodynamic properties are universal functions of density and temperature. Thus, unitary fermi gases provide a archetype to study nonperturbative many-body physics, which is of fundamental significance and crosses several fields.\nThis thesis reports on two topics regarding unitary fermi gases. A recent string theory conjecture gives a lower bound for the dimensionless ratio of shear viscosity of entropy, η=s ≥ 4πℏ =kb. Unitary fermi gases are a candidate for prefect fluids, yet η=s is well above the string theory bound. Using a stochastic formulation of hydrodynamics, we calculate a lower bound for this ratio accounting for the momentum dissipation from fluctuations. This lower bound is in good agreement with both theoretical and experimental results.\nThe second question addressed is the simulation of elliptic flow. Elliptic flow, first observed in 2002, is a characteristic of strongly coupled systems and has been studied in both quark-gluon plasmas and unitary fermi gases. As such, simulations of these systems are of interest. We test a variety of lattice Boltzmann models and compare the simulation results to the theoretical and experimental findings.
This thesis considers out-of-equilibrium dynamics of strongly interacting non-relativistic Fermi gases in several two and three dimensional geometries. The tools of second-order hydrodynamics and gauge-gravity duality will be utilized to address this system. Many of the themes of this work are motivated by the observed similarities in transport properties between strongly interacting Fermi gases and other very different strongly interacting quantum fluids such as the quark-gluon plasma, high temperature superconductors, and quantum field theories described by gauge-gravity duality. In particular, these systems all nearly saturate the conjectured lower bound on the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density η/s≥ℏ/(4πkB)η/s \geq \hbar/(4 πk_B)η/s≥ℏ/(4πkB​) coming from the AdS/CFT correspondence. Among other things, this observation, in conjunction with current experiment and data analysis in atomic, condensed matter, and nuclear physics lends itself to the following questions: How perfect of a fluid is the strongly interacting Fermi gas, and can one find a more stringent constraint on η/sη/sη/s in Fermi gases? Do the similarities in transport properties among strongly interacting quantum systems extend beyond dynamics controlled by the hydrodynamical shear viscosity? In regards to the first question, by utilizing second-order hydrodynamics, it will be demonstrated that higher-order collective modes of a harmonically trapped Fermi gas may serve as a more sensitive probe of the shear viscosity. For the second question, both second-order hydrodynamics and a gravity dual theory are used to make predictions about dynamics occurring on short timescales where hydrodynamics is expected to break down. In particular the appearance of a class of "non-hydrodynamic" collective modes not contained within a Navier-Stokes description of the strongly interacting Fermi gas will be discussed.
Shear viscosity is a measure of the amount of dissipation in a simple fluid. In kinetic theory shear viscosity is related to the rate of momentum transport by quasi-particles, and the uncertainty relation suggests that the ratio of shear viscosity η to entropy density s in units of ℏ/ k B is bounded by a constant. Here, ℏ is Planck's constant and k B is Boltzmann's constant. A specific bound has been proposed on the basis of string theory where, for a large class of theories, one can show that η/ s ⩾ ℏ/(4π k B ). We will refer to a fluid that saturates the string theory bound as a perfect fluid. In this review we summarize theoretical and experimental information on the properties of the three main classes of quantum fluids that are known to have values of η/ s that are smaller than ℏ/ k B . These fluids are strongly coupled Bose fluids, in particular liquid helium, strongly correlated ultracold Fermi gases and the quark gluon plasma. We discuss the main theoretical approaches to transport properties of these fluids: kinetic theory, numerical simulations based on linear response theory and holographic dualities. We also summarize the experimental situation, in particular with regard to the observation of hydrodynamic behavior in ultracold Fermi gases and the quark gluon plasma.
Abstract. In this contribution we summarize recent progress in understanding the shear viscosity of strongly correlated dilute Fermi gases. We discuss predictions from kinetic theory, and show how these predictions can be tested using recent experimental data on elliptic flow. We find agreement between theory and experiments in the high temperature regime T TF, where TF is the the temperature where quantum degeneracy effects become important. In the low temperature regime, T ∼ TF, the strongest constraints on the shear viscosity come from experimental studies of the damping of collective modes. These experiments indicate that η/s ∼< 0.5h̄/kB, where η is the shear viscosity and s is the entropy density.
The last few years have witnessed a dramatic convergence of three distinct lines of research concerned with different kinds of extreme quantum matter. Two of these involve new quantum fluids that can be studied in the laboratory, ultracold quantum gases and quantum chromodynamics (QCD) plasmas. Even though these systems involve vastly different energy scales, the physical properties of the two quantum fluids are remarkably similar. The third line of research is based on the discovery of a new theoretical tool for investigating the properties of extreme quantum matter, holographic dualties. The main goal of this focus issue is to foster communication and understanding between these three fields. We proceed to describe each in more detail. Ultracold quantum gases offer a new paradigm for the study of nonperturbative quantum many-body physics. With widely tunable interaction strength, spin composition, and temperature, using different hyperfine states one can model spin-1/2 fermions, spin-3/2 fermions, and many other spin structures of bosons, fermions, and mixtures thereof. Such systems have produced a revolution in the study of strongly interacting Fermi systems, for example in the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover region, where a close collaboration between experimentalists and theorists—typical in this field—enabled ground-breaking studies in an area spanning several decades. Half-way through this crossover, when the scattering length characterizing low-energy collisions diverges, one obtains a unitary quantum gas , which is universal and scale invariant. The unitary gas has close parallels in the hydrodynamics of QCD plasmas, where the ratio of viscosity to entropy density is extremely low and comparable to the minimum viscosity conjecture, an important prediction of AdS/CFT (see below). Exciting developments in the thermodynamic and transport properties of strongly interacting Fermi gases are of broad interdisciplinary appeal and include new studies of high temperature superfluidity, viscosity, spin-transport, spin-imbalanced mixtures, and three-component gases, this last having a close parallel to color superconductivity. Another system important for the field of strongly-interacting quantum fluids was revealed by analysis of data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Despite naive expectations based on asymptotic freedom that the deconfinement of quarks and gluons at high temperatures would lead to a weakly-interacting quark gluon plasma (QGP), the system appeared to be quite strongly coupled. Subsequent estimates of the viscosity-to-entropy ratio suggest that the system is tantalizingly close to the postulated bound from AdS/CFT calculations. The field is quite dynamic at the moment; new measurements are expected from upgraded detectors at RHIC, and an entirely new energy regime is being opened up by heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. On the theoretical side, much work remains to be done to extract the precise values of the transport coefficients, and to characterize the nature of quasi-particle excitations in the plasma. Finally, holographic dualities such as anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) have opened a new theoretical window on strongly correlated fluids. Holography relates strongly-interacting quantum many-body systems to weakly-coupled semi-classical gravitational systems, replacing quasiparticles with geometry and translating various difficult questions about quantum fluids into simple and calculable geometric exercises. Already, some of the earliest lessons of holography, such as the conjectural bound on the viscosity-to-entropy ratio, have had a considerable impact on the theoretical and experimental study of strongly correlated fluids, from RHIC to ultracold atoms. More recently, the study of holographic superconductors, non-Fermi liquids and unitary quantum gases has touched off a flurry of interest in holography as a toolkit for studying strongly-correlated many-body systems more generally. Holography also allows us to use results from quantum fluids to study classical and quantum gravity; for example, the phase structure of a quantum many-body system translates into a rich classification of black holes in the dual space–time. Given both the rapid progress in applied holography and the exciting developments in ultracold quantum gases and QCD plasmas discussed above, the time is ripe for new collaborations across traditional lines of specialization. This focus issue explores the convergence between three heretofore separate areas of physics. Over forty research groups have contributed original work, and there will be a review article which complements these advances, overviewing them and presenting them in the context of all three fields and their interconnections. The review concludes with a list of open questions. This sets the tone for the present focus issue; namely, interdisciplinary dialog, openness, innovation, and possibility, an emphasis for which New Journal of Physics , an open-access journal of the highest quality, is especially fitted.
In this thesis we present fully nonlinear dissipative hydrodynamics simulations using the lattice Boltzmann method which we have developed to study hydrodynamics in cold atomic gases. We motivate and derive the specifics of the lattice Boltzmann implementation for this system, and then use our simulations to study collective oscillations in two-dimensional Fermi gases. We show that all dominant frequencies and damping rates of the breathing and quadrupole oscillatory modes agree quantitatively with analytic solutions in the hydrodynamic limit for a gas with ideal equation of state in a harmonic trap. We suggest improvements to our numerical methods which we expect to improve the quantitative agreement of the quadrupole mode frequency with the expected value outside of the hydrodynamic limit. We also suggest techniques for extracting the non-dominant (non-hydrodynamic) damping rate of the quadrupole mode in the hydrodynamic regime with higher precision. Additionally, we propose that the observed non-hydrodynamic damping of the quadrupole mode would be interesting to study experimentally for applications to collective oscillations in the quark-gluon plasma.