Energy spectrum of harmonically trapped two-component Fermi gases: Three- and four-particle problem

Abstract

Trapped two-component Fermi gases allow for the investigation of the so-called BCS-BEC crossover by tuning the interspecies atom-atom $s$-wave scattering length scattering $a^{(aa)}$ from attractive to repulsive, including vanishing and infinitely large values. Here, we numerically determine the energy spectrum of the equal-mass spin-balanced four-fermion system---the smallest few-particle system that exhibits BCS-BEC crossover-like behavior---as a function of $a^{(aa)}$ using the stochastic variational approach. For comparative purposes, we also treat the two- and three-particle systems. States with vanishing and finite total angular momentum as well as with natural and unnatural parity are considered. In addition, the energy spectrum of weakly-attractive and weakly-repulsive gases is characterized by employing a perturbative framework that utilizes hyperspherical coordinates. The hyperspherical coordinate approach allows for the straightforward assignment of quantum numbers and furthermore provides great insights into the strongly-interacting unitary regime.