Emergence of pairing in a system of a few strongly attractive fermions in a one-dimensional harmonic trap

Tomasz Sowiński

Tomasz Sowiński, Mariusz Gajda, Kazimierz Rza̧żewski

We study a strongly attractive system of a few spin-(1/2) fermions confined in a one-dimensional harmonic trap, interacting via two-body contact potential. Performing exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian we analyze the ground state and the thermal state of the system in terms of one- and two-particle reduced density matrices. We show how for strong attraction the correlated pairs emerge in the system. We find that the fraction of correlated pairs depends on temperature and we show that this dependence has universal properties analogous to the gap function known from the theory of superconductivity. In contrast to the standard approach based on the variational ansatz and/or perturbation theory, our predictions are exact and are valid also in a strong-attraction limit. Our findings contribute to the understanding of strongly correlated few-body systems and can be verified in current experiments on ultra-cold atoms.

Emmerich Tempfli, Sascha Zöllner, Peter Schmelcher

The stationary states of a few bosons in a one-dimensional harmonic trap are investigated throughout the crossover from weak to strongly attractive interactions. For sufficient attraction, three different classes of states emerge: (i) N -body bound states, (ii) bound states of smaller fragments and (iii) gas-like states that fermionize, that is, map to ideal fermions in the limit of infinite attraction. The two-body correlations and momentum spectra characteristic of the three classes are discussed, and the results are illustrated using the soluble two-particle model.

J. R. Armstrong, Massimo Rontani, Sven AAberg +2 more

G. Zürn, A. N. Wenz, Simon Murmann +3 more

We study quasi-one-dimensional few-particle systems consisting of one to six ultracold fermionic atoms in two different spin states with attractive interactions. We probe the system by deforming the trapping potential and by observing the tunneling of particles out of the trap. For even particle numbers, we observe a tunneling behavior that deviates from uncorrelated single-particle tunneling indicating the existence of pair correlations in the system. From the tunneling time scales, we infer the differences in interaction energies of systems with different number of particles, which show a strong odd-even effect, similar to the one observed for neutron separation experiments in nuclei.

Christian Forssén, Rikard Lundmark, J. Rotureau +2 more