A phenomenological approach to the equation of state of a unitary Fermi gas

Abstract

We propose a phenomenological approach for the equation of state of a unitary Fermi gas. The universal equation of state is parametrized in terms of Fermi–Dirac integrals. This reproduces the experimental data over the accessible range of fugacity and normalized temperature, but cannot describe the superfluid phase transition found in the MIT experiment [Ku et al, Science 335, 563 (2012)]. The most sensitive data for compressibility and specific heat at phase transition can, however, be fitted by introducing into the grand partition function a pair of complex conjugate zeros lying in the complex fugacity plane slightly off the real axis.