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arXiv:cond-mat/0604572 · Physical Review B

Resonant pairing between fermions with unequal masses

Shin-Tza Wu, C.-H. Pao, Sungkit Yip

Published Dec 13, 2006• 60 citations
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Abstract

We study via mean-field theory the pairing between fermions of different masses, especially at the unitary limit. At equal populations, the thermodynamic properties are identical with the equal mass case provided an appropriate rescaling is made. At unequal populations, for sufficiently light majority species, the system does not phase separate. For sufficiently heavy majority species, the phase separated normal phase have a density larger than that of the superfluid. For atoms in harmonic traps, the density profiles for unequal mass fermions can be drastically different from their equal-mass counterparts.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.74.224504

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We study via mean-field theory the pairing between fermions of different masses, especially at the unitary limit. At equal populations, the thermodynamic properties are identical with the equal mass case provided an appropriate rescaling is made. At unequal populations, for sufficiently light majority species, the system does not phase separate. For sufficiently heavy majority species, the phase separated normal phase have a density larger than that of the superfluid. For atoms in harmonic traps, the density profiles for unequal mass fermions can be drastically different from their equal-mass counterparts.
We study the dilute fermion gas with pairing between two species and unequal concentrations in a harmonic trap using the mean-field theory and the local density approximation. We found that the system can exhibit a superfluid shell structure sandwiched by the normal fermions. This superfluid shell structure occurs if the mass ratio is larger than a certain critical value, which increases from the weak-coupling BCS region to the strong-coupling Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) side. In the strong-coupling BEC regime, the radii of the superfluid phase are less sensitive to the mass ratios and are similar to the case of pairing with equal masses. However, the lighter leftover fermions are easier to mix with the superfluid core than the heavier ones. A partially polarized superfluid can be found if the majority fermions are lighter, whereas phase separation is still found if they are heavier.
We analyze the phase diagram of superfluidity for two-species fermion mixtures from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) limit as a function of scattering parameter, population imbalance, and mass anisotropy. We identify regions corresponding to normal, or uniform or nonuniform superfluid phases, and discuss topological quantum phase transitions in the BCS, unitarity, and BEC limits. We derive the Ginzburg-Landau equation near the critical temperature, and show that it describes a dilute mixture of paired and unpaired fermions in the BEC limit. We also obtain the zero temperature low frequency and long wavelength collective excitation spectrum, and recover the Bogoliubov relation for weakly interacting dilute bosons in the BEC limit. Lastly, we discuss the effects of harmonic traps and the resulting density profiles in the BEC regime.
We consider a superfluid state in a two-component gas of fermionic atoms with equal densities and unequal masses in the BCS limit. We develop a perturbation theory along the lines proposed by Gorkov and Melik-Barkhudarov and find that for a large difference in the masses of heavy (M)(M)(M) and light (m)(m)(m) atoms one has to take into account both the second-order and third-order contributions. The result for the critical temperature and order parameter is then quite different from the prediction of the simple BCS approach. Moreover, the small parameter of the theory turns out to be $({p}_{F}\ensuremath{\mid}a\ensuremath{\mid}∕\ensuremath{\hbar})\sqrt{M∕m}⪡1$, where pF{p}_{F}pF​ is the Fermi momentum and aaa the scattering length. Thus, for a large mass ratio M∕mM∕mM∕m the conventional perturbation theory requires significantly smaller Fermi momenta (densities) or scattering lengths than in the case of $M\ensuremath{\sim}m$, where the small parameter is ${p}_{F}\ensuremath{\mid}a\ensuremath{\mid}∕\ensuremath{\hbar}⪡1$. We show that three-body scattering resonances appearing at a large mass ratio due to the presence of three-body bound Efimov states do not influence the result, which in this sense becomes universal.
We consider a dilute two-component atomic fermion gas with unequal populations in a harmonic trap potential using the mean field theory and the local density approximation. We show that the system is phase separated into concentric shells with the superfluid in the core surrounded by the normal fermion gas both on the weak-coupling BCS side and near the Feshbach resonance. On the strong-coupling BEC side, the composite bosons and left-over fermions can be mixed. We calculate the cloud radii and compare axial density profiles systemically for the BCS, near resonance and BEC regimes.
We consider a two-component atomic Fermi gas within a mean-field, single-channel model, where both the mass and population of each component are unequal. We show that the tricritical point at zero temperature evolves smoothly from the BEC to BCS side of the resonance as a function of mass ratio r. We find that the interior gap state proposed by Liu and Wilczek is always unstable to phase separation, while the breached pair state with one Fermi surface for the excess fermions exhibits differences in its density of states and pair correlation functions depending on which side of the resonance it lies. Finally, we show that, when r greater, similar 3.95, the finite-temperature phase diagram of trapped gases at unitarity becomes topologically distinct from the equal mass system.