Exact results for polaron and molecule in one-dimensional spin-1/2 Fermi gas

Abstract

Using exact Bethe ansatz (BA) solutions, we show that a spin-down fermion immersed into a fully polarized spin-up Fermi sea with a weak attraction is dressed by the surrounding spin-up fermions to form the one-dimensional analog of a polaron. As the attraction becomes strong, the spin-down fermion binds with one spin-up fermion to form a tightly bound molecule. Throughout the whole interaction regime, a crossover from the polaron to a molecule state is fully demonstrated through exact results of the excitation spectrum, the effective mass, binding energy and kinetic energy. Furthermore, a clear distinction between the polaron and molecule is conceived by the probability distribution, single particle reduced density matrix and density-density correlations, which are calculated directly from the Bethe ansatz wave function. Such a polaron-molecule crossover presents a universal nature of an impurity immersed into a fermionic medium with an attraction in one dimension.