Pairing Fluctuations Research Articles

On the Boson–Fermion resonant model on a lattice

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.

Entropic penalties in circular DNA assembly.

The thermodynamic properties of DNA circular molecules are investigated by a new path integral computational method which treats in the real space the fundamental forces stabilizing the molecule. The base pair and stacking contributions to the classical action are evaluated separately by simulating a broad ensemble of twisted conformations. We obtain, for two short sequences, a free energy landscape with multiple wells corresponding to the most convenient values of helical repeat. Our results point to a intrinsic flexibility of the circular structures in which the base pair fluctuations move the system from one well to the next thus causing the local unwinding of the helix. The latter is more pronounced in the shorter sequence whose cyclization causes a higher bending stress. The entropic reductions associated to the formation of the ordered helicoidal structure are estimated.

Fate of the Bose insulator in the limit of strong localization and low Cooper-pair density in ultrathin films

A Bose insulator composed of a low density of strongly localized Cooper pairs develops at the two-dimensional superconductor to insulator transition (SIT) in a number of thin film systems. Investigations of ultrathin amorphous PbBi films far from the SIT described here provide evidence that the Bose insulator gives way to a second insulating phase with decreasing film thickness. At a critical film thickness ${d}_{c}$ the magnetoresistance changes sign from positive, as expected for boson transport, to negative, as expected for fermion transport, signs of local Cooper-pair phase coherence effects on transport vanish, and the transport activation energy exhibits a kink. Below ${d}_{c}$ pairing fluctuation effects remain visible in the high-temperature transport while the activation energy continues to rise. These features show that Cooper pairing persists and suggest that the localized unpaired electron states involved in transport are interspersed among regions of strongly localized Cooper pairs in this strongly localized, low Cooper-pair density phase.

Heteropairing and component-dependent pseudogap phenomena in an ultracold Fermi gas with different species with different masses

We investigate the superfluid phase transition and single-particle excitations in the BCS (Bareen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas with mass imbalance. In our recent paper [R. Hanai, et. al., Phys. Rev. A 88, 053621 (2013)], we showed that an extended $T$-matrix approximation (ETMA) can overcome the serious problem known in the ordinary (non-self-consistent) $T$-matrix approximation that it unphysically gives double-valued superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ in the presence of mass imbalance. However, at the same time, the ETMA was also found to give the vanishing $T_{\rm c}$ in the weak-coupling and highly mass-imbalanced case. In this paper, we inspect the correctness of this ETMA result, using the self-consistent $T$-matrix approximation (SCTMA). We show that the vanishing $T_{\rm c}$ is an artifact of the ETMA, coming from an internal inconsistency of this theory. The superfluid phase transition actually always occurs, irrespective of the ratio of mass imbalance. We also apply the SCTMA to the pseudogap problem in a mass-imbalanced Fermi gas. We show that pairing fluctuations induce different pseudogap phenomena between the the light component and heavy component. We also point out that a $^6$Li-$^{40}$K mixture is a useful system for the realization of a hetero pairing state, as well as for the study of component-dependent pseudogap phenomena.

Pairing effect in the thermal shape-fluctuation model on the width of the giant dipole resonance

We present an approach that includes temperature-dependent shell effects and fluctuations of the pairing field in the thermal shape fluctuation model (TSFM). We apply this approach to study the width of giant dipole resonance (GDR) in $^{97}$Tc, $^{120}$Sn and $^{208}$Pb. Our results demonstrate that the TSFM that includes pairing fluctuations can explain the recently observed quenching in the GDR width. We also show that to validate pairing prescriptions and the parameters involved, we require more and precise data.

Collective excitations of hydrodynamically coupled driven colloidal particles.

Two colloidal particles, driven around an optical vortex trap, have been recently shown to pair due to an interplay between hydrodynamic interactions and the curved path they are forced to follow. We demonstrate here that this pairing interaction can be tuned experimentally, and we study its effect on the collective excitations of many particles driven around such an optical trap. We find that even though the system is overdamped, hydrodynamic interactions due to driving give rise to nondecaying excitations with characteristic dispersion relations. The collective excitations of the colloidal ring reflect fluctuations of particle pairs rather than those of single particles.

Pseudogap phenomena in ultracold atomic Fermi gases

The pairing and superfluid phenomena in a two-component ultracold atomic Fermi gas is an analogue of Cooper pairing and superconductivity in an electron system, in particular, the high $T_c$ superconductors. Owing to the various tunable parameters that have been made accessible experimentally in recent years, atomic Fermi gases can be explored as a prototype or quantum simulator of superconductors. It is hoped that, utilizing such an analogy, the study of atomic Fermi gases may shed light to the mysteries of high $T_c$ superconductivity. One obstacle to the ultimate understanding of high $T_c$ superconductivity, from day one of its discovery, is the anomalous yet widespread pseudogap phenomena, for which a consensus is yet to be reached within the physics community, after over 27 years of intensive research efforts. In this article, we shall review the progress in the study of pseudogap phenomena in atomic Fermi gases in terms of both theoretical understanding and experimental observations. We show that there is strong, unambiguous evidence for the existence of a pseudogap in strongly interacting Fermi gases. In this context, we shall present a pairing fluctuation theory of the pseudogap physics and show that it is indeed a strong candidate theory for high $T_c$ superconductivity.

Effect of pairing fluctuations on the spin resonance in Fe-based superconductors

The spin resonance observed in the inelastic neutron scattering data on Fe-based superconductors has played a prominent role in the quest for determining the symmetry of the order parameter in these compounds. Most theoretical studies of the resonance employ an RPA-type approach in the particle-hole channel and associate the resonance in the spin susceptibility $\chi_S (\mathbf{q}, \omega)$ at momentum ${\bf Q} = (\pi,\pi)$ with the spin-exciton of an $s^{+-}$ superconductor, pulled below $2\Delta$ by residual attraction associated with the sign change of the gap between Fermi points connected by ${\bf Q}$. Here we explore the effect of fluctuations in the particle-particle channel on the spin resonance. Particle-particle and particle-hole channels are coupled in a superconductor and to what extent the spin resonance can be viewed as a particle-hole exciton needs to be addressed. In the case of purely repulsive interactions we find that the particle-particle channel at total momentum ${\bf Q}$ (the $\pi $channel) contributes little to the resonance. However, if the interband density-density interaction is attractive and the $\pi-$resonance is possible on its own, along with the spin-exciton, we find a much stronger shift of the resonance frequency from the position of the would-be spin-exciton resonance. We also show that the expected double-peak structure in this situation does not appear because of the strong coupling between particle-hole and particle-particle channels, and $\mathrm{Im} \chi_S ({\bf Q}, \omega)$ displays only a single peak.

Phase correlations and quasicondensate in a two-dimensional ultracold Fermi gas

The interplay between dimensionality, coherence and interaction in superfluid Fermi gases is analyzed by the phase correlation function of the field of fermionic pairs. We calculate this phase correlation function for a two-dimensional superfluid Fermi gas with $s$-wave interactions within the Gaussian pair fluctuation formalism. The spatial behavior of the correlation function is shown to exhibit a rapid (exponential) decay at short distances and a characteristic algebraic decay at large distances, with an exponent matching that expected from Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless theory of 2D Bose superfluids. We conclude that the Gaussian pair fluctuation approximation is able to capture the physics of quasi long-range order in two-dimensional Fermi gases.

Averaging thermodynamic quantities over pairing fluctuations

Discrepancies in BCS theory results for finite Fermi systems with exact values of thermodynamic quantities are eliminated by means of averaging over pairing fluctuations. A form of the averaging function is proposed and its parameters are considered.

Competing order in correlated electron systems made simple: Consistent fusion of functional renormalization and mean-field theory

We derive an efficient and unbiased method for computing order parameters in correlated electron systems with competing instabilities. Charge, magnetic, and pairing fluctuations above the energy scale of spontaneous symmetry breaking are taken into account by a functional renormalization group flow, while the formation of order below that scale is treated in mean-field theory. The method captures fluctuation-driven instabilities such as $d$-wave superconductivity. As a first application we study the competition between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in the ground state of the two-dimensional Hubbard model.

Uniform spin susceptibility and spin-gap phenomenon in the BCS-BEC-crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas

We investigate the uniform spin susceptibility $\chi_{\rm s}$ in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations within the framework of an extended $T$-matrix approximation, we show that $\chi_{\rm s}$ exhibits non-monotonic temperature dependence in the normal state. In particular, $\chi_{\rm s}$ is suppressed near the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ due to strong pairing fluctuations. To characterize this anomalous behavior, we introduce the spin-gap temperature $T_{\rm s}$ as the temperature at which $\chi_{\rm s}$ takes a maximum value. Determining $T_{\rm s}$ in the whole BCS-BEC crossover region, we identify the spin-gap regime in the phase diagram of a Fermi gas in terms of the temperature and the strength of a pairing interaction. We also clarify how the spin-gap phenomenon is related to the pseudogap phenomenon appearing in the single-particle density of states. Our results indicate that an ultracold Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover region is a very useful system to examine the pseudogap phenomenon and the spin-gap phenomenon in a unified manner.

The entropy excess and moment of inertia excess ratio with inclusion of statistical pairing fluctuations

The entropy excess of 163 Dy compared to 162 Dy as a function of nuclear temperature have been investigated using the mean value Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) method based on application of the isothermal probability distribution function to take into account the statistical fluctuations. Then, the spin cut-off excess ratio (moment of inertia excess ratio) introduced by Razavi [Phys. Rev. C88 (2013) 014316] for proton and neutron system have been obtained and are compared with their corresponding data on the BCS model. The results show that the overall agreement between the BCS model and mean value BCS method is satisfactory and the mean value BCS model reduces fluctuations and washes out singularities. However, the expected constant value in the entropy excess is not reproduced by the mean value BCS method.

The Hubbard model beyond the two-pole approximation: a composite operator method study

Within the framework of the Composite Operator Method, a three-pole solution for the two-dimensional Hubbard model is presented and analyzed in detail. In addition to the two Hubbard operators, the operatorial basis comprises a third operator describing electronic transitions dressed by nearest-neighbor spin fluctuations. These latter, compared to charge and pair fluctuations, are assumed to be preeminent in the region of model-parameter space - small doping, low temperature and large on-site Coulomb repulsion - where one expects strong electronic correlations to dominate the physics of the system. This assumption and the consequent choice for the basic field, as well as the whole analytical approximation framework, have been validated through a comprehensive comparison with data for local and single-particle properties obtained by different numerical methods on varying all model parameters. The results systematically agree, both quantitatively and qualitatively, up to coincide in many cases. Many relevant features of the model, reflected by the numerical data, are exactly caught by the proposed solution and, in particular, the crossover between weak and intermediate-strong correlations as well as the shape of the occupied portion of the dispersion. A comprehensive comparison with other $n$-pole solutions is also reported in order to explore and possibly understand the reasons of such good performance.

Order, Criticality, and Excitations in the Extended Falicov-Kimball Model

Using exact numerical techniques, we investigate the nature of excitonic (electron-hole) bound states and the development of exciton coherence in the one-dimensional half-filled extended Falicov-Kimball model. The ground-state phase diagram of the model exhibits, besides band-insulator and staggered orbital ordered phases, an excitonic insulator (EI) with power-law correlations. The criticality of the EI state shows up in the von Neumann entropy. The anomalous spectral function and condensation amplitude provide the binding energy and coherence length of the electron-hole pairs which, on their part, point towards a Coulomb interaction driven crossover from BCS-like electron-hole pairing fluctuations to tightly bound excitons. We show that while a mass imbalance between electrons and holes does not affect the location of the BCS-BEC crossover regime, it favors staggered orbital ordering to the disadvantage of the EI. Within the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) regime, the quasiparticle dispersion develops a flat valence-band top, in accord with the experimental finding for Ta2NiSe5.

Signatures of superconductivity and pseudogap formation in nonequilibrium nodal quasiparticles revealed by ultrafast angle-resolved photoemission

We use time- and angle-resolved photoemission to measure the nodal non-equilibrium electronic states in various dopings of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$. We find that the initial pump-induced transient signal of these ungapped states is strongly affected by the onset of the superconducting gap at $T_c$, superconducting pairing fluctuations at $T_p$, and the pseudogap at $T^*$. Moreover, $T_p$ marks a suggestive threshold in the fluence-dependent transient signal, with the appearance of a critical fluence below $T_p$ that corresponds to the energy required to break apart all Cooper pairs. These results challenge the notion of a nodal-antinodal dichotomy in cuprate superconductors by establishing a new link between nodal quasiparticles and the cuprate phase diagram.

Drag effect and Cooper electron-hole pair fluctuations in a topological insulator film

Manifestations of fluctuating Cooper pairs formed by electrons and holes populating opposite surfaces of a topological insulator film in the Coulomb drag effect are considered. Fluctuational Aslamazov-Larkin contribution to the transresistance between surfaces of the film is calculated. The contribution is the most singular one in the vicinity of critical temperature $T_\mathrm{d}$ and diverges in the critical manner as $(T-T_\mathrm{d})^{-1}$. In the realistic conditions $\gamma\sim T_\mathrm{d}$, where $\gamma$ is average scattering rate of electrons and holes, Aslamazov-Larkin contribution plays important role and can dominate the fluctuation transport. The macroscopic theory based on time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation is developed for description of the fluctuational drag effect in the system. The results can be easily generalized for other realizations of electron-hole bilayer.

Large-amplitude pairing fluctuations in atomic nuclei

Pairing fluctuations are self-consistently incorporated on the same footing as the quadrupole deformations in present state-of-the-art calculations including particle-number and angular-momentum conservation as well as configuration mixing. The approach is complemented by the use of the finite-range density-dependent Gogny force which, with a unique source for the particle-hole and particle-particle interactions, guarantees a self-consistent interplay in both channels. We have applied our formalism to study the role of the pairing degree of freedom in the description of the most relevant observables like spectra, transition probabilities, separation energies, etc. We find that the inclusion of pairing fluctuations mostly affects the description of excited states, depending on the excitation energy and the angular momentum. $E0$ transition probabilities experience rather big changes while $E2$'s are less affected. Genuine pairing vibrations are thoroughly studied with the conclusion that deformations strongly inhibits their existence. These studies have been performed for a selection of nuclei: spherical, deformed, and with different degrees of collectivity.

Excitation properties and effects of mass imbalance in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas

We investigate single-particle properties of a mass-imbalanced Fermi gas in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region. In the presence of mass imbalance, we point out that the ordinary $T$-matrix approximation, which has been extensively used to clarify various BCS-BEC crossover physics in the mass-balanced case, unphysically gives a double-valued solution in terms of the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ in the crossover region. To overcome this serious problem, we include higher order strong-coupling corrections beyond the $T$-matrix level. Using this extended $T$-matrix theory, we calculate single-particle excitations in the normal state above $T_{\rm c}$. The so-called pseudogap phenomena originating from pairing fluctuations are shown to be different between the light mass component and heavy mass component, which becomes more remarkable at higher temperatures. Since Fermi condensates with hetero-Cooper pairs have recently been discussed in various fields, such as exciton (polariton) condensates, as well as color superconductivity, our results would be useful for the further development of Fermi superfluid physics, beyond the conventional superfluid state with homo-Cooper pairs.

Fulde-Ferrell pairing instability of a Rashba spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas

We theoretically analyze the pairing instability of a three-dimensional ultracold atomic Fermi gas towards a Fulde-Ferrell superfluid, in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and in-plane Zeeman field. We use the standard Thouless criterion for the onset of superfluidity, with which the effect of pair fluctuations is partially taken into account by approximately using a mean-field chemical potential at zero temperature. This gives rise to an improved prediction of the superfluid transition temperature beyond mean-field, particularly in the strong-coupling unitary limit. We also investigate the pairing instability with increasing Rashba spin-orbit coupling, along the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid to a Bose-Einstein condensate of Rashbons (i.e., the tightly bound state of two fermions formed by strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling