Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:cond-mat/9811166 · Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Strong-coupling limit in the evolution from BCS superconductivity to Bose-Einstein condensation

P. Pieri, Giancarlo Calvanese Strinati

Published Jun 1, 2000• 185 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the problem of the crossover from BCS superconductivity to Bose-Einstein condensation in three dimensions for a system of fermions with a mutual attractive interaction, for which we adopt the simplifying assumption of a suitably regularized point-contact interaction. We examine in a critical way the fermionic (self-consistent) T-matrix approximation, which has been widely utilized in the literature to describe this crossover above the superconducting critical temperature, and show that it fails to yield the correct behavior of the system in the strong-coupling limit, where composite bosons form as tightly bound fermion pairs. We then set up the correct approximation for a ``dilute'' system of composite bosons and show that a class of diagrams has to be considered in the place of the fermionic T-matrix approximation for the self-energy. This class of diagrams correctly describes both the weak- and strong-coupling limits, and consequently results in an improved interpolation scheme for the intermediate (crossover) region. In this context, we provide also a systematic mapping between the corresponding diagrammatic theories for the composite bosons and the constituent fermions. As a preliminary result to demonstrate the numerical effect of our class of diagrams on physical quantities, we calculate the value of the scattering length for composite bosons in the strong-coupling limit and show that it is considerably modified with respect to the result obtained within the self-consistent fermionic T-matrix approximation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.61.15370

Related papers

Evolution from BCS superconductivity to Bose-Einstein condensation: Current correlation function in the broken-symmetry phase

Natascia Andrenacci, P. Pieri, Giancarlo Calvanese Strinati

We consider the current correlation function for a three-dimensional system of fermions embedded in a homogeneous background and mutually interacting via an attractive short-range potential, below the (superconducting) critical temperature. Diagrammatic contributions in the broken-symmetry phase are identified, which yield for the (wave-vector and frequency-dependent) current correlation function the fermionic BCS approximation in the weak-coupling limit and the bosonic Bogoliubov approximation in the strong-coupling limit (whereby composite bosons form as bound-fermion pairs). The temperature dependence of the superfluid density (from the BCS exponential behavior at weak coupling to a power-law behavior at strong coupling) and the form of the Pippard-like kernel at zero temperature are explicitly obtained from weak to strong coupling. Quite generally, it is shown that the Pippard-like kernel is the sum of a local (London-like) term and of a nonlocal component, the local term being dominant in the strong-coupling limit and the nonlocal component in the BCS (weak-coupling) limit. It is also shown that the range of the nonlocal component is determined by the coherence length measuring the spatial correlations of the amplitude of the order parameter, namely, the correlations among different Cooper pairs (or composite bosons), rather than between the fermionic partners of a given pair. In addition, a prescription is provided for mapping the fermionic onto the bosonic diagrammatic theories in the broken-symmetry phase, thus complementing what has been already done in the normal phase.

arXiv:cond-mat/0305324•Physical review. B, Condensed matter•Oct 6, 2003•51 citations

Fermi gas throughout the BCS-BEC crossover: Comparative study of t -matrix approaches with various degrees of self-consistency

Michele Pini, P. Pieri, Giancarlo Calvanese Strinati

The diagrammatic $t$-matrix approximation has often been adopted to describe a dilute Fermi gas. This approximation, originally considered by V. M. Galitskii (Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 34, 151 (1958) [Sov. Phys. JETP 7, 104 (1958)]) for a repulsive interparticle interaction, was later widely utilized for an attractive Fermi gas to describe the BCS-BEC crossover from strongly overlapping Cooper pairs in weak coupling to nonoverlapping composite bosons in strong coupling. Several variants of the $t$-matrix approximation have been considered in the literature, which are distinguished by the degree of self-consistency allowed in the building blocks of the diagrammatic structure. Here, we perform a systematic and comparative study of all possible variants on the degree of self-consistency for the $t$-matrix approximation in an attractive Fermi gas, which enables us to confront their outcomes for thermodynamic and dynamical quantities on the same footing in an unbiased way. For definiteness, only the normal phase above the superfluid critical temperature is considered. The dispute that can be raised in this context, about the adequateness of introducing progressive degrees of self-consistency over and above the non-self-consistent $t$-matrix approximation for an attractive Fermi gas, parallels the recent interest in the literature in assessing the importance of various degrees of self-consistency in the context of semiconductors and insulators.

arXiv:1903.01960•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Mar 4, 2019•50 citations

On the Boson–Fermion resonant model on a lattice

R. Micnas

We review briefly the properties of a mixture of mutually interacting bosons (bound electron pairs) and itinerant fermions on a lattice (the boson–fermion model). The calculations of the superconducting phase transition temperature () and the phase diagram are the main concern. The self-consistent -matrix method is applied to determine the superconducting critical temperature from a pseudogap phase. The method takes into account the pairing fluctuations effects. The -matrix results for are given for a three-dimensional (3-D) cubic lattice with tight-binding dispersion of electrons and standard bosons, and they are also compared with those of the BCS- mean-field approximation. Our results describe the BCS-Bose-Einstein condensation crossover in the boson–fermion mixture with resonant interaction. The energy scales involved in the pseudogap formation are also analysed.

arXiv:1912.04094•The Philosophical Magazine A Journal of Theoretical Experimental and Applied Physics•Nov 21, 2014•4 citations

Pair excitations, collective modes, and gauge invariance in the BCS–Bose-Einstein crossover scenario

Ioan Kosztin, Qijin Chen, Ying-Jer Kao +1 more

In this paper we study the BCS Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover scenario within the superconducting state, using a T-matrix approach which yields the ground state proposed by Leggett. Here we extend this ground state analysis to finite temperatures T and interpret the resulting physics. We find two types of bosoniclike excitations of the system: long lived, incoherent pair excitations and collective modes of the superconducting order parameter, which have different dynamics. Using a gauge invariant formalism, this paper addresses their contrasting behavior as a function of T and superconducting coupling constant g. At a more physical level, our paper emphasizes how, at finite T, BCS-BEC approaches introduce an important parameter ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{pg}}^{2}={\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{2}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{sc}}^{2}$ into the description of superconductivity. This parameter is governed by the pair excitations and is associated with particle-hole asymmetry effects that are significant for sufficiently large g. In the fermionic regime, ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{pg}}^{2}$ represents the difference between the square of the excitation gap ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{2}$ and that of the superconducting order parameter ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{sc}}^{2}.$ The parameter ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{pg}}^{2},$ which is necessarily zero in the BCS (mean field) limit increases monotonically with the strength of the attractive interaction g. It follows that there is a significant physical distinction between this BCS-BEC crossover approach (in which g is the essential variable which determines ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{pg}})$ and the widely discussed phase fluctuation scenario in which the plasma frequency is the tuning parameter. Finally, we emphasize that in the strong coupling limit, there are important differences between the composite bosons that arise in crossover theories and the usual bosons of the (interacting) Bose liquid. Because of constraints imposed on the fermionic excitation gap and chemical potential, in crossover theories, the fermionic degrees of freedom can never be fully removed from consideration.

arXiv:cond-mat/9906180•Physical review. B, Condensed matter•May 1, 2000•74 citations

BCS-to-BEC Quantum Phase Transition in High-Tc Superconductors and Fermionic Atomic Gases: A Functional Integral Approach

Sergio S. Botelho

The problem of the evolution from BCS theory with cooperative Cooper pairing to the formation and condensation of composite bosons has attracted considerable attention for the past several decades. It has gained renewed impetus in the mid-eighties with the discovery of the high-Tc superconductors, which have a coherence length comparable to the interparticle spacing. More recently, this subject has spurred a great deal of research activity in connection with experiments involving dilute atomic gases of fermionic atoms. The initial objective of this work will be to use functional integral techniques to analyze the low-temperature BCS-to-BEC evolution of d-wave superconductors within the saddle point (mean field) approximation for a continuum model. Then, the same mathematical formalism will be applied to the problem of the BCS-to-BEC evolution of fully spin-polarized p-wave Fermi gases in two dimensions. We find that a quantum phase transition occurs for both systems as they are driven from the BCS-like regime of weakly interacting fermionic pairs to the opposite BEC-like regime of strongly interacting bosonic molecules. This is in contrast to the smooth crossover predicted and observed in systems that exhibit s-wave pairing symmetry. We calculate several spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties that signal the occurrence of this phase transition, and suggest some possible experimental realizations. Finally, fluctuations about the saddle point solution are included in the calculations, and the effects of such correction are analyzed in the low (T~0) and high (T~Tc) temperature limits. We conclude that, at high temperatures, the bosonic degrees of freedom that arise from two-particle bound states become essential to describe the strong coupling limit,\nas the saddle point approximation alone becomes unreliable.

•Sep 12, 2005•2 citations

BCS-BEC Crossover at Finite Temperature for Superfluid Trapped Fermi Atoms

Andrea Perali, P. Pieri, L. Pisani +1 more

We consider the BCS-BEC (Bose-Einstein-condensate) crossover for a system of trapped Fermi atoms at finite temperature, both below and above the superfluid critical temperature, by including fluctuations beyond mean field. We determine the superfluid critical temperature and the pair-breaking temperature as functions of the attractive interaction between Fermi atoms, from the weak- to the strong-coupling limit (where bosonic molecules form as bound-fermion pairs). Density profiles in the trap are also obtained for all temperatures and couplings.

arXiv:cond-mat/0311309•Physical Review Letters•Jun 4, 2004•194 citations
We consider the problem of the crossover from BCS superconductivity to Bose-Einstein condensation in three dimensions for a system of fermions with a mutual attractive interaction, for which we adopt the simplifying assumption of a suitably regularized point-contact interaction. We examine in a critical way the fermionic (self-consistent) T-matrix approximation, which has been widely utilized in the literature to describe this crossover above the superconducting critical temperature, and show that it fails to yield the correct behavior of the system in the strong-coupling limit, where composite bosons form as tightly bound fermion pairs. We then set up the correct approximation for a ``dilute'' system of composite bosons and show that a class of diagrams has to be considered in the place of the fermionic T-matrix approximation for the self-energy. This class of diagrams correctly describes both the weak- and strong-coupling limits, and consequently results in an improved interpolation scheme for the intermediate (crossover) region. In this context, we provide also a systematic mapping between the corresponding diagrammatic theories for the composite bosons and the constituent fermions. As a preliminary result to demonstrate the numerical effect of our class of diagrams on physical quantities, we calculate the value of the scattering length for composite bosons in the strong-coupling limit and show that it is considerably modified with respect to the result obtained within the self-consistent fermionic T-matrix approximation.
We consider the current correlation function for a three-dimensional system of fermions embedded in a homogeneous background and mutually interacting via an attractive short-range potential, below the (superconducting) critical temperature. Diagrammatic contributions in the broken-symmetry phase are identified, which yield for the (wave-vector and frequency-dependent) current correlation function the fermionic BCS approximation in the weak-coupling limit and the bosonic Bogoliubov approximation in the strong-coupling limit (whereby composite bosons form as bound-fermion pairs). The temperature dependence of the superfluid density (from the BCS exponential behavior at weak coupling to a power-law behavior at strong coupling) and the form of the Pippard-like kernel at zero temperature are explicitly obtained from weak to strong coupling. Quite generally, it is shown that the Pippard-like kernel is the sum of a local (London-like) term and of a nonlocal component, the local term being dominant in the strong-coupling limit and the nonlocal component in the BCS (weak-coupling) limit. It is also shown that the range of the nonlocal component is determined by the coherence length measuring the spatial correlations of the amplitude of the order parameter, namely, the correlations among different Cooper pairs (or composite bosons), rather than between the fermionic partners of a given pair. In addition, a prescription is provided for mapping the fermionic onto the bosonic diagrammatic theories in the broken-symmetry phase, thus complementing what has been already done in the normal phase.
The diagrammatic ttt-matrix approximation has often been adopted to describe a dilute Fermi gas. This approximation, originally considered by V. M. Galitskii (Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 34, 151 (1958) [Sov. Phys. JETP 7, 104 (1958)]) for a repulsive interparticle interaction, was later widely utilized for an attractive Fermi gas to describe the BCS-BEC crossover from strongly overlapping Cooper pairs in weak coupling to nonoverlapping composite bosons in strong coupling. Several variants of the ttt-matrix approximation have been considered in the literature, which are distinguished by the degree of self-consistency allowed in the building blocks of the diagrammatic structure. Here, we perform a systematic and comparative study of all possible variants on the degree of self-consistency for the ttt-matrix approximation in an attractive Fermi gas, which enables us to confront their outcomes for thermodynamic and dynamical quantities on the same footing in an unbiased way. For definiteness, only the normal phase above the superfluid critical temperature is considered. The dispute that can be raised in this context, about the adequateness of introducing progressive degrees of self-consistency over and above the non-self-consistent ttt-matrix approximation for an attractive Fermi gas, parallels the recent interest in the literature in assessing the importance of various degrees of self-consistency in the context of semiconductors and insulators.
We review briefly the properties of a mixture of mutually interacting bosons (bound electron pairs) and itinerant fermions on a lattice (the boson–fermion model). The calculations of the superconducting phase transition temperature () and the phase diagram are the main concern. The self-consistent -matrix method is applied to determine the superconducting critical temperature from a pseudogap phase. The method takes into account the pairing fluctuations effects. The -matrix results for are given for a three-dimensional (3-D) cubic lattice with tight-binding dispersion of electrons and standard bosons, and they are also compared with those of the BCS- mean-field approximation. Our results describe the BCS-Bose-Einstein condensation crossover in the boson–fermion mixture with resonant interaction. The energy scales involved in the pseudogap formation are also analysed.
In this paper we study the BCS Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover scenario within the superconducting state, using a T-matrix approach which yields the ground state proposed by Leggett. Here we extend this ground state analysis to finite temperatures T and interpret the resulting physics. We find two types of bosoniclike excitations of the system: long lived, incoherent pair excitations and collective modes of the superconducting order parameter, which have different dynamics. Using a gauge invariant formalism, this paper addresses their contrasting behavior as a function of T and superconducting coupling constant g. At a more physical level, our paper emphasizes how, at finite T, BCS-BEC approaches introduce an important parameter ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{pg}}^{2}={\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{2}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{sc}}^{2}$ into the description of superconductivity. This parameter is governed by the pair excitations and is associated with particle-hole asymmetry effects that are significant for sufficiently large g. In the fermionic regime, ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{pg}}^{2}$ represents the difference between the square of the excitation gap ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{2}$ and that of the superconducting order parameter ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{sc}}^{2}.$ The parameter ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{pg}}^{2},$ which is necessarily zero in the BCS (mean field) limit increases monotonically with the strength of the attractive interaction g. It follows that there is a significant physical distinction between this BCS-BEC crossover approach (in which g is the essential variable which determines ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{pg}})$ and the widely discussed phase fluctuation scenario in which the plasma frequency is the tuning parameter. Finally, we emphasize that in the strong coupling limit, there are important differences between the composite bosons that arise in crossover theories and the usual bosons of the (interacting) Bose liquid. Because of constraints imposed on the fermionic excitation gap and chemical potential, in crossover theories, the fermionic degrees of freedom can never be fully removed from consideration.
The problem of the evolution from BCS theory with cooperative Cooper pairing to the formation and condensation of composite bosons has attracted considerable attention for the past several decades. It has gained renewed impetus in the mid-eighties with the discovery of the high-Tc superconductors, which have a coherence length comparable to the interparticle spacing. More recently, this subject has spurred a great deal of research activity in connection with experiments involving dilute atomic gases of fermionic atoms. The initial objective of this work will be to use functional integral techniques to analyze the low-temperature BCS-to-BEC evolution of d-wave superconductors within the saddle point (mean field) approximation for a continuum model. Then, the same mathematical formalism will be applied to the problem of the BCS-to-BEC evolution of fully spin-polarized p-wave Fermi gases in two dimensions. We find that a quantum phase transition occurs for both systems as they are driven from the BCS-like regime of weakly interacting fermionic pairs to the opposite BEC-like regime of strongly interacting bosonic molecules. This is in contrast to the smooth crossover predicted and observed in systems that exhibit s-wave pairing symmetry. We calculate several spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties that signal the occurrence of this phase transition, and suggest some possible experimental realizations. Finally, fluctuations about the saddle point solution are included in the calculations, and the effects of such correction are analyzed in the low (T~0) and high (T~Tc) temperature limits. We conclude that, at high temperatures, the bosonic degrees of freedom that arise from two-particle bound states become essential to describe the strong coupling limit,\nas the saddle point approximation alone becomes unreliable.
We consider the BCS-BEC (Bose-Einstein-condensate) crossover for a system of trapped Fermi atoms at finite temperature, both below and above the superfluid critical temperature, by including fluctuations beyond mean field. We determine the superfluid critical temperature and the pair-breaking temperature as functions of the attractive interaction between Fermi atoms, from the weak- to the strong-coupling limit (where bosonic molecules form as bound-fermion pairs). Density profiles in the trap are also obtained for all temperatures and couplings.