The last chapter focuses on radio-frequency spectroscopy of multi component fermion gases. Rf experiments of 6Li and 40K are first reviewed. We show that rf experiments essentially measure spin correlation functions, and internal symmetries of the interparticle interactions constrain the rf spectrum through sum rules. We self-consistently generate the spin correlation functions for 6Li within Hartree-Fock-BCS approximation. Our calculation reproduces the mean field shift observed in experiments for normal gases, and confirms that a second peak detected at higher frequencies in the rf spectrum at sufficiently low temperatures arises from paired fermions. We define a mean frequency shift by the sum rules, and show that it is proportional to the square of BCS pairing gap. The discrepancy between the mean shift and the peak frequency shift observed in experiment for the condensed phase lies in the broad width of the rf spectrum function.
The spin response functions measured in multicomponent fermion gases by means of rf transitions between hyperfine states are strongly constrained by the symmetry of the interatomic interactions. Such constraints are reflected in the spin
f-sum rule that the response functions must obey. In particular, only if the effective interactions are not fully invariant in
SU(2) spin space, are the response functions sensitive to mean field and pairing effects. We demonstrate, via a self-consistent calculation of the spin-spin correlation function within the framework of Hartree-Fock-BCS theory, how one can derive a correlation function explicitly obeying the
f-sum rule. By contrast, simple one-loop approximations to the spin response functions do not satisfy the sum rule, except in special cases. As we show, the emergence of a second peak at higher frequency in the rf spectrum, as observed in a recent experiment in trapped
6Li, can be understood as the contribution from the paired fermions, with a shift of the peak from the normal particle response proportional to the square of the BCS pairing gap.
Spatial correlations are observed in an ultracold gas of fermionic atoms close to a Feshbach resonance. The correlations are detected by inducing spin-changing rf transitions between pairs of atoms. We observe the process in the strongly interacting regime for attractive as well as for repulsive atom-atom interactions and both in the regime of high and low quantum degeneracy. The observations are compared with a two-particle model that provides theoretical predictions for the measured rf transition rates.
We show that strong pairing correlations in Fermi gases lead to the appearance of a gaplike structure in the rf spectrum, both in the balanced superfluid and in the normal phase above the Clogston-Chandrasekhar limit. The average rf shift of a unitary gas is proportional to the ratio of the Fermi velocity and the scattering length with the final state. In the strongly imbalanced case, the rf spectrum measures the binding energy of a minority atom to the Fermi sea of majority atoms. Our results provide a qualitative understanding of recent experiments by Schunck et al.
We provide a comprehensive theoretical study of the radio-frequency (rf) spectra of a two-component Fermi gas with balanced populations in the normal region of the temperature-vs-coupling phase diagram. In particular, rf spectra are analyzed in terms of two characteristic peaks, which can be either distinct or overlapping. On the BEC side of the crossover, these two contributions are associated with a fermionic quasi-particle peak and a bosonic-like contribution due to pairing. On the BCS side of the crossover, the two peaks are instead associated with interactions between particles occurring, respectively, at high or low relative momenta. Through this two-peak analysis, we show how and to what extent the correlation between the widths of the rf spectra and the pair size, previously identified in the superfluid phase at low temperature, can be extended to the normal phase, as well as how the temperature-vs-coupling phase diagram of the BCS-BEC crossover can be partitioned in a number of distinct physical sectors. Several analytic results for the shape and widths of the rf spectra are also derived in appropriate temperature and coupling limits.