Superfluid instability in ultra-cold gas of fermionic atoms with attractive potential in a one-dimensional trap

Abstract

In the context of ultracold fermionic atoms with effective spin S confined to an elongated trap we study the one-dimensional gas interacting via an attractive δ-function potential using the Bethe ansatz solution. There are N = 2S + 1 fundamental states: The particles can either be unpaired or clustered in bound states of 2, 3, ..., 2S and 2S + 1 atoms. In a magnetic field, the rich ground state phase diagram consists of these N states and various mixed phases in which combinations of the fundamental states coexist. The phase diagram simplifies considerably in zero-field, where only bound states of N atoms can exist. Due to the harmonic confinement and within the local density approximation, the density profile of bound states decreases along the tube from the center of the trap to its boundaries. In an array of tubes with weak Josephson tunneling superfluid order may arise. In zero-field the response functions determining the superfluid and density wave order are calculated using conformal field theory and the exact Bethe ansatz solution. The response function for superfluidity consists of a power law with distance, while the correlation function for density waves is a power law of distance times a sinusoidal factor oscillating with distance with a period given by two times the Fermi momentum. For S = 1/2 superfluidity is a possibility for all densities and density waves can be excluded. For S ≥ 3/2 superfluidity may occur at low densities but at high densities it gives way to density waves. We discuss the scenario of phase separation where for S ≥ 3/2 the system has superfluid long-range order toward the trap boundaries and density waves at its center.