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Point Interactions in Systems of Fermions

Moser, Thomas

Published Jan 1, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this thesis we will discuss systems of point interacting fermions, their stability and other spectral properties. Whereas for bosons a point interacting system is always unstable this ques- tion is more subtle for a gas of two species of fermions. In particular the answer depends on the mass ratio between these two species. Most of this work will be focused on the N + M model which consists of two species of fermions with N, M particles respectively which interact via point interactions. We will introduce this model using a formal limit and discuss the N + 1 system in more detail. In particular, we will show that for mass ratios above a critical one, which does not depend on the particle number, the N + 1 system is stable. In the context of this model we will prove rigorous versions of Tan relations which relate various quantities of the point-interacting model. By restricting the N + 1 system to a box we define a finite density model with point in- teractions. In the context of this system we will discuss the energy change when introducing a point-interacting impurity into a system of non-interacting fermions. We will see that this change in energy is bounded independently of the particle number and in particular the bound only depends on the density and the scattering length. As another special case of the N + M model we will show stability of the 2 + 2 model for mass ratios in an interval around one. Further we will investigate a different model of point interactions which was discussed before in the literature and which is, contrary to the N + M model, not given by a limiting procedure but is based on a Dirichlet form. We will show that this system behaves trivially in the thermodynamic limit, i.e. the free energy per particle is the same as the one of the non-interacting system.

DOI
10.15479/at:ista:th_1043

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•Jan 10, 2012•2 citations
In this thesis we will discuss systems of point interacting fermions, their stability and other spectral properties. Whereas for bosons a point interacting system is always unstable this ques- tion is more subtle for a gas of two species of fermions. In particular the answer depends on the mass ratio between these two species. Most of this work will be focused on the N + M model which consists of two species of fermions with N, M particles respectively which interact via point interactions. We will introduce this model using a formal limit and discuss the N + 1 system in more detail. In particular, we will show that for mass ratios above a critical one, which does not depend on the particle number, the N + 1 system is stable. In the context of this model we will prove rigorous versions of Tan relations which relate various quantities of the point-interacting model. By restricting the N + 1 system to a box we define a finite density model with point in- teractions. In the context of this system we will discuss the energy change when introducing a point-interacting impurity into a system of non-interacting fermions. We will see that this change in energy is bounded independently of the particle number and in particular the bound only depends on the density and the scattering length. As another special case of the N + M model we will show stability of the 2 + 2 model for mass ratios in an interval around one. Further we will investigate a different model of point interactions which was discussed before in the literature and which is, contrary to the N + M model, not given by a limiting procedure but is based on a Dirichlet form. We will show that this system behaves trivially in the thermodynamic limit, i.e. the free energy per particle is the same as the one of the non-interacting system.
We prove that a system of N fermions interacting with an additional particle via point interactions is stable if the ratio of the mass of the additional particle to the one of the fermions is larger than some critical m *. The value of m * is independent of N and turns out to be less than 1. This fact has important implications for the stability of the unitary Fermi gas. We also characterize the domain of the Hamiltonian of this model, and establish the validity of the Tan relations for all wave functions in the domain.
We give a lower bound on the ground state energy of a system of two fermions of one species interacting with two fermions of another species via point interactions. We show that there is a critical mass ratio m2 ≈ 0.58 such that the system is stable, i.e., the energy is bounded from below, for m∈[m2,m2−1]m \in [m_{2}, m_{2}^{-1}]m∈[m2​,m2−1​] . So far it was not known whether this 2 + 2 system exhibits a stable region at all or whether the formation of four-body bound states causes an unbounded spectrum for all mass ratios, similar to the Thomas effect. Our result gives further evidence for the stability of the more general N + M system.
We consider a model of fermions interacting via point interactions, defined via a certain weighted Dirichlet form. While for two particles the interaction corresponds to infinite scattering length, the presence of further particles effectively decreases the interaction strength. We show that the model becomes trivial in the thermodynamic limit, in the sense that the free energy density at any given particle density and temperature agrees with the corresponding expression for non-interacting particles.
We give a bound on the ground-state energy of a system of N non-interacting fermions in a three-dimensional cubic box interacting with an impurity particle via point interactions. We show that the change in energy compared to the system in the absence of the impurity is bounded in terms of the gas density and the scattering length of the interaction, independently of N. Our bound holds as long as the ratio of the mass of the impurity to the one of the gas particles is larger than a critical value m∗∗≈0.36{m^{**}}\approx 0.36m∗∗≈0.36 , which is the same regime for which we recently showed stability of the system.
We qualify the main features of the spectrum of the Hamiltonian of point interaction for a three-dimensional quantum system consisting of three point-like particles, two identical fermions, plus a third particle of different species, with two-body interaction of zero range. For arbitrary magnitude of the interaction, and arbitrary value of the mass parameter (the ratio between the mass of the third particle and that of each fermion) above the stability threshold, we identify the essential spectrum, localise and prove the finiteness of the discrete spectrum, qualify the angular symmetry of the eigenfunctions, and prove the monotonicity of the eigenvalues with respect to the mass parameter. We also demonstrate the existence of bound states in a physically relevant regime of masses.
Fermionic matter is ubiquitous in nature, from the electrons in metals and semiconductors or the neutrons in the inner crust of neutron stars, to gases of fermionic atoms, like 40K or 6Li that can be created and studied under laboratory conditions. It is especially interesting to study these systems at very low temperatures, where we enter the world of quantum mechanical phenomena. Due to the Fermi-Dirac statistics, a dilute system of spin-polarised fermions exhibits no interactions and can be viewed as an ideal Fermi gas. However, interactions play a crucial role for fermions of several spin species. This thesis addresses several questions concerning interacting Fermi gases, in particular the transition between the normal and the superfluid phase and dynamical properties at higher temperatures. First we will look at the unitary Fermi gas: a two-component system of fermions interacting with divergent scattering length. This system is particularly interesting as it exhibits universal behaviour. Due to the strong interactions perturbation theory is inapplicable and no exact theoretical description is available. I will describe the Determinant Diagrammatic Monte Carlo algorithm with which the unitary Fermi gas can be studied from first principles. This algorithm fails in the presence of a spin imbalance (unequal number of particles in the two components) due to a sign problem. I will show how to apply reweighting techniques to generalise the algorithm to the imbalanced case, and present results for the critical temperature and other thermodynamic observables at the critical point, namely the chemical potential, the energy per particle and the contact density. These are the first numerical results for the imbalanced unitary Fermi gas at finite temperature. I will also show how temperatures beyond the critical point can be accessed and present results for the equation of state and the temperature dependence of the contact density. At sufficiently high temperatures a semiclassical description captures all relevant physical features of the system. The dynamics of an interacting Fermi gas can then be studied via a numerical simulation of the Boltzmann equation. I will describe such a numerical setup and apply it to study the collision of two spin-polarised fermionic clouds. When the two components are separated in an elongated harmonic trap and then released, they collide and for sufficiently strong interactions can bounce off each other several times. I will discuss the different types of the qualitative behaviour, show how they can be interpreted in terms of the equilibrium properties of the system, and explain how they relate to the coupling between different excitation modes. I will also demonstrate how transport coefficients, for instance the spin drag, can be extracted from the numerical data.