Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Transition from supersonic to subsonic dispersive shock waves in superfluid Fermi gases

Senne Van Loon, Wout Van Alphen, Jacques Tempere, Hadrien Kurkjian

Published Mar 30, 2018• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We study the propagation of shock waves in superfluid Fermi gases in the BEC-BCS crossover. Unlike in other superfluid systems, where shock waves have already been studied and observed, Fermi gases can exhibit a subsonic dispersion relation for which the shock wave pattern appears at the tail of the wavefront. We show that this property can be used to distinguish between a subsonic and a supersonic dispersion relation at unitarity.

Related papers

Transition from supersonic to subsonic waves in superfluid Fermi gases

Senne Van Loon, Wout Van Alphen, Jacques Tempere +1 more

We study the propagation of dispersive waves in superfluid Fermi gases in the BEC-BCS crossover. Unlike in other superfluid systems where dispersive waves have already been studied and observed, Fermi gases can exhibit a subsonic dispersion relation for which the dispersive wave pattern appears at the tail of the wave front. We show that this property can be used to distinguish between a subsonic and a supersonic dispersion relation at unitarity.

arXiv:1803.11494•Physical Review A•Dec 26, 2018•4 citations

Supersonic and subsonic shock waves in the unitary Fermi gas

Luca Salasnich

We investigate shock waves in the unitary Fermi gas by using the zero-temperature equations of superfluid hydrodynamics. We obtain analytical solutions for the dynamics of a localized perturbation of the uniform gas. These supersonic bright and subsonic dark solutions produce, after a transient time, an extremely large (divergent) density gradient: the shock. We calculate the time of formation of the shock and also simulate the space-time behavior of the waves by solving generalized hydrodynamic equations, which include a reliable dispersive regularization of the shock. We find that the shock spreads into wave ripples whose properties crucially depend on the chosen initial configuration.

arXiv:1110.0311•Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Nov 1, 2011•33 citations

Propagation of sound and supersonic bright solitons in superfluid Fermi gases in BCS-BEC crossover

Wen Wen, Shun-Qing Shen, Guoxiang Huang

We investigate the linear and nonlinear sound propagations in a cigar-shaped superfluid Fermi gas with a large particle number. We first solve analytically the eigenvalue problem of linear collective excitations and provide explicit expressions of all eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, which are valid for all superfluid regimes in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-Bose-Einstein condensation (BCS-BEC) crossover. The linear sound speed obtained agrees well with that of a recent experimental measurement. We then consider a weak nonlinear excitation and show that the time evolution of the excitation obeys a Korteweg de Vries equation. Different from the result obtained in quasi-one-dimensional case studied previously, where subsonic dark solitons are obtained via the balance between quantum pressure and nonlinear effect, we demonstrate that bright solitons with supersonic propagating velocity can be generated in the present three-dimensional system through the balance between a waveguidelike dispersion and the interparticle interaction. The supersonic bright solitons obtained display different physical properties in different superfluid regimes and hence can be used to characterize superfluid features of the BCS-BEC crossover.

Physical Review B•Jan 28, 2010•41 citations

Dynamics of shock waves in a superfluid unitary Fermi gas

Wen Wen, Tiankun Shui, Yafei Shan +1 more

Abstract We study the formation and dynamics of shock waves initiated by a repulsive potential in a superfluid unitary Fermi gas by using the order-parameter equation. In the theoretical framework, the regularization process of shock waves mediated by the quantum pressure term is purely dispersive. Our results show good agreement with the experiment of Joseph et al (2011 Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 150401 ). We reveal that the boxlike-shaped density peak observed in the experiment consists of many vortex rings due to the transverse instability of the dispersive shock wave. In addition, we study the transition from a sound wave to subsonic shock waves as the strength of the repulsive potential increases and show a strong qualitative change in the propagation speed of the wavefronts. For a relatively small strength of the repulsive potential, the propagation speed decreases below the sound speed with the increase of the strength as a scaling behavior. For a large strength where the shock waves are formed by colliding two spatially separated clouds, the speed is still smaller than the sound speed, but remains almost unchanged as the strength increases, which can be interpreted as the same expansion speed of the proliferation of the vortex rings originated from the transverse instability.

arXiv:1411.0188•Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Jul 23, 2015•5 citations

Collective mode of homogeneous superfluid Fermi gases in the BEC-BCS crossover

R. Combescot, M. Yu. Kagan, S. Stringari

We perform a detailed study of the collective mode across the whole crossover from the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)-to the BCS regime in fermionic gases at zero temperature, covering the whole range of energy beyond the linear regime. This is done on the basis of the dynamical BCS model. We recover first the results of the linear regime in a simple form. Then specific attention is paid to the nonlinear part of the dispersion relation and its interplay with the continuum of single-fermionic excitations. In particular we consider in detail the merging of the collective mode into the continuum of single-fermionic excitations. This occurs not only on the BCS side of the crossover, but also slightly beyond unitarity on the BEC side. Another remarkable feature is the very linear behavior of the dispersion relation in the vicinity of unitarity almost up to merging with the continuum. Finally, while on the BEC side the mode is quite analogous to the Bogoliubov mode, a difference appears at high wave vectors. On the basis of our results we determine the Landau critical velocity in the BEC-BCS crossover which is found to be largest close to unitarity. Our investigation has revealed interesting qualitative features which deserve experimental exploration as well as further theoretical studies by more sophisticated means.

arXiv:cond-mat/0607493•Physical Review A•Oct 17, 2006•185 citations

Korteweg de Vries Description of One-Dimensional Superfluid Fermi Gases

Yan-Xia Xu, Wen-Shan Duan

We study one-dimensional matter-wave pulses in cigar-shaped superfluid Fermi gases, including the linear and nonlinear waves of the system. A Korteweg de Vries (KdV) solitary wave is obtained for the superfluid Fermi gases in the limited case of a BEC regime, a BCS regime and unitarity. The dependences of the propagation velocity, amplitude and the width of the solitary wave on the dimensionless interaction parameter y = 1/( k F a sc ) are given for the limited cases of BEC and unitarity.

Chinese Physics Letters•Dec 1, 2011•4 citations
We study the propagation of shock waves in superfluid Fermi gases in the BEC-BCS crossover. Unlike in other superfluid systems, where shock waves have already been studied and observed, Fermi gases can exhibit a subsonic dispersion relation for which the shock wave pattern appears at the tail of the wavefront. We show that this property can be used to distinguish between a subsonic and a supersonic dispersion relation at unitarity.
We investigate shock waves in the unitary Fermi gas by using the zero-temperature equations of superfluid hydrodynamics. We obtain analytical solutions for the dynamics of a localized perturbation of the uniform gas. These supersonic bright and subsonic dark solutions produce, after a transient time, an extremely large (divergent) density gradient: the shock. We calculate the time of formation of the shock and also simulate the space-time behavior of the waves by solving generalized hydrodynamic equations, which include a reliable dispersive regularization of the shock. We find that the shock spreads into wave ripples whose properties crucially depend on the chosen initial configuration.
We investigate the linear and nonlinear sound propagations in a cigar-shaped superfluid Fermi gas with a large particle number. We first solve analytically the eigenvalue problem of linear collective excitations and provide explicit expressions of all eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, which are valid for all superfluid regimes in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-Bose-Einstein condensation (BCS-BEC) crossover. The linear sound speed obtained agrees well with that of a recent experimental measurement. We then consider a weak nonlinear excitation and show that the time evolution of the excitation obeys a Korteweg de Vries equation. Different from the result obtained in quasi-one-dimensional case studied previously, where subsonic dark solitons are obtained via the balance between quantum pressure and nonlinear effect, we demonstrate that bright solitons with supersonic propagating velocity can be generated in the present three-dimensional system through the balance between a waveguidelike dispersion and the interparticle interaction. The supersonic bright solitons obtained display different physical properties in different superfluid regimes and hence can be used to characterize superfluid features of the BCS-BEC crossover.
Abstract We study the formation and dynamics of shock waves initiated by a repulsive potential in a superfluid unitary Fermi gas by using the order-parameter equation. In the theoretical framework, the regularization process of shock waves mediated by the quantum pressure term is purely dispersive. Our results show good agreement with the experiment of Joseph et al (2011 Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 150401 ). We reveal that the boxlike-shaped density peak observed in the experiment consists of many vortex rings due to the transverse instability of the dispersive shock wave. In addition, we study the transition from a sound wave to subsonic shock waves as the strength of the repulsive potential increases and show a strong qualitative change in the propagation speed of the wavefronts. For a relatively small strength of the repulsive potential, the propagation speed decreases below the sound speed with the increase of the strength as a scaling behavior. For a large strength where the shock waves are formed by colliding two spatially separated clouds, the speed is still smaller than the sound speed, but remains almost unchanged as the strength increases, which can be interpreted as the same expansion speed of the proliferation of the vortex rings originated from the transverse instability.
We perform a detailed study of the collective mode across the whole crossover from the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)-to the BCS regime in fermionic gases at zero temperature, covering the whole range of energy beyond the linear regime. This is done on the basis of the dynamical BCS model. We recover first the results of the linear regime in a simple form. Then specific attention is paid to the nonlinear part of the dispersion relation and its interplay with the continuum of single-fermionic excitations. In particular we consider in detail the merging of the collective mode into the continuum of single-fermionic excitations. This occurs not only on the BCS side of the crossover, but also slightly beyond unitarity on the BEC side. Another remarkable feature is the very linear behavior of the dispersion relation in the vicinity of unitarity almost up to merging with the continuum. Finally, while on the BEC side the mode is quite analogous to the Bogoliubov mode, a difference appears at high wave vectors. On the basis of our results we determine the Landau critical velocity in the BEC-BCS crossover which is found to be largest close to unitarity. Our investigation has revealed interesting qualitative features which deserve experimental exploration as well as further theoretical studies by more sophisticated means.