Physical Review B
BCS to Bose-Einstein crossover at finite temperature in the broken-symmetry phase
P. Pieri, L. Pisani, Giancarlo Strinati Calvanese
Abstract
The BCS-BEC crossover is studied in a systematic way in the broken-symmetry phase between zero temperature\nand the critical temperature. This study bridges two regimes where quantum and thermal fluctuations\nare, respectively, important. The theory is implemented on physical grounds, by adopting a fermionic selfenergy\nin the broken-symmetry phase that represents fermions coupled to superconducting fluctuations in weak\ncoupling and to bosons described by the Bogoliubov theory in strong coupling. This extension of the theory\nbeyond mean field proves important at finite temperature, to connect with the results in the normal phase. The\norder parameter, the chemical potential, and the single-particle spectral function are calculated numerically for\na wide range of coupling and temperature. This enables us to assess the quantitative importance of superconducting\nfluctuations in the broken-symmetry phase over the whole BCS-BEC crossover. Our results are relevant\nto the possible realizations of this crossover with high-temperature cuprate superconductors and with\nultracold fermionic atoms in a trap.