This article is written as a Lecture given in the 2006 Varenna Summer School on "Ultracold Fermi Gases". Here we present a review of BCS--Bose Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover theory with emphasis on finite temperature effects. We discuss the role of temperature $T$ as it enters a theoretical formalism which is based on the standard BCS-Leggett ground state. We also discuss the role of temperature in the context of experiments ranging from thermometric issues to signatures of superfluidity. Particularly important to this discussion is the novel normal state associated with the crossover regime, intermediate between BCS and BEC. The experimental evidence for this unusual normal state (associated with pre-formed pairs) and its counterpart below $T_c$ (associated with non-condensed pairs) is presented in the context of different experiments. We end with a discussion of finite temperature effects in spin polarized superfluids, where $T$ is found to play a crucial role in both theory and experiment.
This article is written as a Lecture given in the 2006 Varenna Summer School on "Ultracold Fermi Gases". Here we present a review of BCS--Bose Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover theory with emphasis on finite temperature effects. We discuss the role of temperature T as it enters a theoretical formalism which is based on the standard BCS-Leggett ground state. We also discuss the role of temperature in the context of experiments ranging from thermometric issues to signatures of superfluidity. Particularly important to this discussion is the novel normal state associated with the crossover regime, intermediate between BCS and BEC. The experimental evidence for this unusual normal state (associated with pre-formed pairs) and its counterpart below Tc (associated with non-condensed pairs) is presented in the context of different experiments. We end with a discussion of finite temperature effects in spin polarized superfluids, where T is found to play a crucial role in both theory and experiment.
The physics of quantum degenerate atomic Fermi gases in uniform as well as in harmonically trapped configurations is reviewed from a theoretical perspective. Emphasis is given to the effect of interactions that play a crucial role, bringing the gas into a superfluid phase at low temperature. In these dilute systems, interactions are characterized by a single parameter, the s-wave scattering length, whose value can be tuned using an external magnetic field near a broad Feshbach resonance. The BCS limit of ordinary Fermi superfluidity, the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of dimers, and the unitary limit of large scattering length are important regimes exhibited by interacting Fermi gases. In particular, the BEC and the unitary regimes are characterized by a high value of the superfluid critical temperature, on the order of the Fermi temperature. Different physical properties are discussed, including the density profiles and the energy of the ground-state configurations, the momentum distribution, the fraction of condensed pairs, collective oscillations and pair-breaking effects, the expansion of the gas, the main thermodynamic properties, the behavior in the presence of optical lattices, and the signatures of superfluidity, such as the existence of quantized vortices, the quenching of the moment of inertia, and the consequences of spin polarization. Various theoretical approaches are considered, ranging from the mean-field description of the BCS-BEC crossover to nonperturbative methods based on quantum Monte Carlo techniques. A major goal of the review is to compare theoretical predictions with available experimental results.
This review is written at the time of the twentieth anniversary of the discovery of high-temperature superconductors, which nearly coincides with the important discovery of the superfluid phases of ultracold trapped fermionic atoms. We show how these two subjects have much in common. Both have been addressed from the perspective of the BCS—Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover scenario, which is designed to treat short coherence length superfluids with transition temperatures which are “high” with respect to the Fermi energy. A generalized mean field treatment of BCS–BEC crossover at general temperatures T, based on the BCS–Leggett ground state, has met with remarkable success in the fermionic atomic systems. Here we summarize this success in the context of four different cold atom experiments, all of which provide indications, direct or indirect, for the existence of a pseudogap. This scenario also provides a physical picture of the pseudogap phase in the underdoped cuprates which is a central focus of high Tc research. We summarize successful applications of BCS–BEC crossover to key experiments in high Tc systems, including the phase diagram, specific heat, and vortex core STM data, along with the Nernst effect, and exciting recent data on the superfluid density in very underdoped samples.
The study of ultracold trapped fermionic gases is a rapidly exploding subject [1-10] which is defining new directions in condensed matter and atomic physics. It has also captured the attention of physicists who study color superconducting quark matter as well as nuclear matter [11-13]. Indeed, it is hard, in recent times, to find a subfield of physics which appeals this broadly to the research community. As we come to understand the gases, experimentalists will move to address fermionic atoms in optical lattices; this will provide important insight to condensed matter physicists as analogue systems for “solving ” intractable many body problems. What makes these gases (and lattices) so important is their remarkable tunability and controllability. Using a Feshbach resonance, one can tune the attractive two-body interaction from weak to strong, and thereby make a smooth crossover from a BCS superfluid to a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) [14, 15]. Not only does this allow high transition temperatures Tc (relative to the Fermi energy EF) but it may also provide insights into the high temperature cuprate superconductivity [16-19]. Furthermore, one can tune the population of the two spin states, essentially at will, in this way, allowing exploration [20-22] of exotic polarized phases such as the FFLO [23-25] superfluids, of interest to condensed matter, nuclear and particle physicists. One will be able to tune the lattice parameters such as bandwidth, on-site repulsion, even random disorder, etc and thereby study the famous, and as yet, unsolved Hubbard model Hamiltonian. This paper will concentrate on those issues relating to the effects which are of current interest to experimentalists. In particular, we will study BCS-BEC crossover in atomic Fermi gases, looking at a wide range of different experiments. Our group has been principally interested in the effects of finite temperature [26, 17, 18] and in this review, we will discuss how temperature T enters into the standard crossover theory, and how temperature can be measured, and how temc○
In this paper we present a very general theoretical framework for addressing fermionic superfluids over the entire range of BCS to Bose Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover in the presence of population imbalance or spin polarization. Our emphasis is on providing a theory which reduces to the standard zero temperature mean-field theories in the literature, but necessarily includes pairing fluctuation effects at nonzero temperature within a consistent framework. Physically, these effects are associated with the presence of preformed pairs (or a fermionic pseudogap) in the normal phase, and pair excitations of the condensate, in the superfluid phase. We show how this finite T theory of fermionic pair condensates bears many similarities to the condensation of point bosons. In the process we examine three different types of condensate: the usual breached pair or Sarma phase and both the one- and two-plane-wave Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) states. The last of these has been discussed in the literature albeit only within a Landau-Ginzburg formalism, generally valid near Tc. Here we show how to arrive at the two-plane-wave LOFF state in the ground state as well as at general temperature T.
This article presents a comparison of two finite-temperature BCS--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover theories above the transition temperature: Nozieres--Schmitt-Rink (NSR) theory and finite-T extended BCS-Leggett theory. The comparison is cast in the form of numerical studies of the behavior of the fermionic spectral function both theoretically and as constrained by (primarily) radio frequency (rf) experiments. Both theories include pair fluctuations and exhibit pseudogap effects, although the nature of this pseudogap is very different. The pseudogap in finite-T extended BCS-Leggett theory is found to follow a BCS-like dispersion which, in turn, is associated with a broadened BCS-like self-energy, rather more similar to what is observed in high-temperature superconductors (albeit, for a d-wave case). The fermionic quasiparticle dispersion is different in NSR theory and the damping is considerably larger. We argue that the two theories are appropriate in different temperature regimes with the BCS-Leggett approach being more suitable nearer to condensation. There should, in effect, be little difference at higher T as the pseudogap becomes weaker and where the simplifying approximations used in the BCS-Leggett approach break down. On the basis of momentum-integrated rf studies of unpolarized gases, it would be difficult to distinguish which theory is the better one. A full comparison for polarized gases is not possible since it is claimed that there are inconsistencies in the NSR approach (not found in the BCS-Leggett scheme). Future experiments along the lines of momentum-resolved experiments look to be very promising in distinguishing the two theories.
We investigate magnetic properties and effects of pairing fluctuations in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer--Bose-Einstein condensation (BCS-BEC) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas. Recently, Liu and Hu [Europhys. Lett. 75, 364 (2006)], and Parish et al. [Nat. Phys. 3, 124 (2007)], pointed out that the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozi\`eres and Schmitt-Rink (NSR), which has been extensively used to successfully clarify various physical properties of cold Fermi gases, unphysically gives negative spin susceptibility in the BCS-BEC crossover region. The same problem also exists in the ordinary non-self-consistent T-matrix approximation. In this paper, we clarify that this serious problem comes from incomplete treatment in term of pseudogap phenomena originating from strong pairing fluctuations, as well as effects of spin fluctuations on the spin susceptibility. Including these two key issues, we construct an extended T-matrix theory which can overcome this problem. The resulting positive spin susceptibility agrees well with the recent experiment on a 6Li Fermi gas done by Sanner et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 010402 (2011)]. We also apply our theory to a polarized Fermi gas to examine the superfluid phase transition temperature Tc, as a function of the polarization rate. Since the spin susceptibility is an important physical quantity, especially in singlet Fermi superfluids, our results would be useful in considering how singlet pairs appear above and below Tc in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of cold Fermi gases.