We study low-energy collective excitations in a trapped superfluid Fermi gas. These excitations originate from slow variations of the phase of the superfluid order parameter and, in this sense, are similar to the Bogolyubov sound in a homogeneous superfluid Fermi gas. Well below the critical temperature the eigenfrequencies of the lowest collective excitations are of the order of the trap frequency, and these modes manifest themselves in the density oscillations under periodic modulations of the trap frequencies. This gives a clear signature of the presence of a superfluid phase.
We investigate the single-particle properties at
T=0 of a trapped superfluid gas of Fermi atoms with a Feshbach resonance. A tunable pairing interaction associated with the Feshbach resonance leads to the BCS--Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover, where the character of superfluidity continuously changes from the BCS-type to a BEC of composite bosons. In this paper, we extend our previous work for a uniform superfluid Fermi gas [Y. Ohashi and A. Griffin, Phys. Rev. A 67, 063612 (2003)] to include the effect of a harmonic trap. We do not use the local density approximation (LDA), but directly solve the Bogoliubov--de Gennes (BdG) coupled equations. While our explicit numerical solutions are for a weak (narrow) Feshbach resonance, we argue that the single-particle BdG excitation spectrum will exhibit the same features for a strong (broad) Feshbach resonance. Using these equations, we find self-consistent values for the spatially dependent local density
n(r) as well as the composite BCS order parameter $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}(\mathbf{r})$, the latter describing both the Cooper-pair and molecular condensate contributions. Using these results, we calculate the single-particle density of states in the crossover region, and from this determine the true single-particle energy gap
(Eg) of the trapped Fermi superfluid. This is associated with the in-gap (or Andreev) states in the low-density region at the edge of the trap. We calculate the laser-induced tunneling current $I(\ensuremath{\omega})$ into another hyperfine state, as measured in recent rf spectroscopy experiments. This rf spectrum gives a direct probe of the quasiparticle spectrum. We show how the high-energy part of $I(\ensuremath{\omega})$ gives information about $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}(r=0)$ at the center of the trap (which is comparable to the Fermi energy ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{F}$ in the crossover region). We show that $I(\ensuremath{\omega})$ is very dependent on the spatial profile of the pair potential $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}(r)$ that is used. We also emphasize that the narrow ``unpaired atom" peak in the rf data gives information about
Eg and the low-energy $(⪡{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{F})$ in-gap states of a Fermi superfluid. While our calculations are limited to
T=0, we use them to discuss the recent data of Chin et al. and the LDA calculations of T\"orm\"a and co-workers. The LDA, while useful, can lead to an incorrect physical picture of the low-density surface region of the Fermi superfluid.
We investigate pseudogap phenomena in the unitarity limit of a trapped superfluid Fermi gas. Including effect of strong pairing fluctuations within a T -matrix approximation, as well as effects of a harmonic trap within the local density approximation (LDA), we calculate the local superfluid density of states below the superfluid phase transition temperature T c . We show that the spatial region where single-particle excitations are dominated by the pseudogap may still exist even below T c , due to inhomogeneous pairing fluctuations caused by the trap potential. From the temperature dependence of the pseudogapped density of states, we identify the pseudogap regime of the unitarity Fermi gas with respect to the temperature and spatial position. We also show that the combined T -matrix theory with the LDA can quantitatively explain the local pressure which was recently observed in the unitarity limit of a 6 Li Fermi gas.
We investigate single-particle excitations and strong-coupling effects in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of a superfluid Fermi gas. Including phase and amplitude fluctuations of the superfluid order parameter within a
T-matrix theory, we calculate the superfluid density of states (DOS), as well as single-particle spectral weight, over the entire BCS-BEC crossover region below the superfluid transition temperature
Tc. We clarify how the pseudogap in the normal state evolves into the superfluid gap, as one passes through
Tc. While the pseudogap in DOS continuously evolves into the superfluid gap in the weak-coupling BCS regime, the superfluid gap in the crossover region is shown to appear in DOS after the pseudogap disappears below
Tc. In the phase diagram with respect to the temperature and interaction strength, we determine the region where strong pairing fluctuations dominate over single-particle properties of the system. Our results would be useful for the study of strong-coupling phenomena in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of a superfluid Fermi gas.
We discuss a superfluid phase transition in a trapped neutral-atom Fermi gas. We consider the case where the critical temperature greatly exceeds the spacing between the trap levels and derive the corresponding Ginzburg-Landau equation. The latter turns out to be analogous to the equation for the condensate wave function in a trapped Bose gas. The analysis of its solution provides us with the value of the critical temperature
Tc and with the spatial and temperature dependence of the order parameter in the vicinity of the phase transition point.