Spin-imbalanced Fermi Gases Research Articles

Long-Time Behavior of the Momentum Distribution During the Sudden Expansion of a Spin-Imbalanced Fermi Gas in One Dimension

We study the sudden expansion of spin-imbalanced ultracold lattice fermions with attractive interactions in one dimension after turning off the longitudinal confining potential. We show that the momentum distribution functions of majority and minority fermions quickly approach stationary values due to a quantum distillation mechanism that results in a spatial separation of pairs and majority fermions. As a consequence, Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) correlations are lost during the expansion. Furthermore, we argue that the shape of the stationary momentum distribution functions can be understood by relating them to the integrals of motion in this integrable quantum system. We discuss our results in the context of proposals to observe FFLO correlations, related to recent experiments by Liao et al., Nature (London) 467, 567 (2010).

Repulsive polarons found

Quasiparticles known as repulsive polarons are predicted to occur when 'impurity' fermionic particles interact repulsively with a fermionic environment. They have now been detected in two widely differing systems. See Letters p.615 & p.619 Metastable states in Fermi gases with strong repulsive interactions are of fundamental interest, but the realization of such systems is challenging because they are intrinsically unstable against decay. Two groups have overcome this obstacle and report the detection of the theoretically predicted repulsive Fermi polarons. Kohstall et al. study a three-dimensional system of ultracold potassium impurities resonantly interacting with a Fermi sea of lithium atoms. The character of the interaction stabilizes the repulsive regime, enabling the authors to detect long-lived, metastable repulsive polarons. Koschorreck et al. study both attractive and repulsive Fermi polarons in a two-dimensional, spin-imbalanced Fermi gas of potassium atoms, and find evidence for a pairing transition. The results from these two studies hold promise for the creation of exotic states with ultracold fermionic atoms, such as ferromagnetic quantum phases.

Single magnetic impurity in a spin-imbalanced superfluid Fermi gas

A spin-imbalanced superfluid Fermi gas harmonically trapped in a two-dimensional optical lattice with a single classical magnetic impurity is investigated by Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. In both the spin-balanced and weak spin-imbalanced cases, we show that a strong magnetic impurity can change the sign of the pairing order parameter. The amplitude of the sign-changed order parameter caused by impurity is affected by the strength of the impurity potential, temperature, and particle density. Compared to the spin-balanced case, we find that an additional in-gap bound state can be induced by a strong magnetic impurity in the weak spin-imbalanced case. In the strong spin-imbalanced case where the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state is established as the ground state, the impurity induces wide spatial oscillations of pairing order parameters and can enhance the order parameters by suppressing the local spin imbalance.

Controlling the pair momentum of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in a three-dimensional Fermi gas through a one-dimensional periodic potential

The question whether a spin-imbalanced Fermi gas can accommodate the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state has been the subject of intense study. This state, in which Cooper pairs obtain a nonzero momentum, has hitherto eluded experimental observation. Recently, we demonstrated that the FFLO state can be stabilized in a 3D Fermi gas, by adding a 1D periodic potential. Until now it was assumed that the FFLO wave vector always lies parallel to this periodic potential (FFLO-P). In this contribution we show that, surprisingly, the FFLO wave vector can also lie skewed with respect to the potential (FFLO-S). Starting from the partition sum, the saddle-point free energy of the system is derived within the path-integral formalism. Minimizing this free energy allows us to study the different competing ground states of the system. To qualitatively understand the underlying pairing mechanism, we visualize the Fermi surfaces of the spin up and spin down particles. From this visualization, we find that tilting the FFLO wave vector with respect to the direction of the periodic potential, can result in a larger overlap between the pairing bands of both spin species. This skewed FFLO state can provide an additional experimental signature for observing FFLO superfluidity in a 3D Fermi gas.

Quantum criticality and universal scaling of strongly attractive spin-imbalanced Fermi gases in a one-dimensional harmonic trap

We investigate thermodynamics and quantum criticality of strongly attractive Fermi gases confined in a one-dimensional (1D) harmonic trap. Finite temperature density profiles, entropy, compressibility and susceptibility of the trapped gas are studied using analytic results for the thermodynamics within the local density approximation. We demonstrate that current experiments are capable of measuring universal Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid physics and quantum criticality of 1D strongly interacting Fermi gases. The results provide insights on recent measurements of key features of the phase diagram of a spin-imbalanced atomic Fermi gas [Liao et al., Nature 467, 567 (2010)] and point to further study of quantum critical phenomena in ultracold atomic Fermi gases.

Collective modes and the speed of sound in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state

We consider the density response of a spin-imbalanced ultracold Fermi gas in an optical lattice in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. We calculate the collective mode spectrum of the system in the generalised random phase approximation and find that though the collective modes are damped even at zero tempererature, the damping is weak enough to have well-defined collective modes. We calculate the speed of sound in the gas and show that it is anisotropic due to the anisotropy of the FFLO pairing, which implies an experimental signature for the FFLO state.

A Bogoliubov–de Gennes study of trapped spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases

It is quite common that several different phases exist simultaneously in a system of trapped quantum gases of ultra-cold atoms. One example is the strongly interacting Fermi gas with two imbalanced spin species, which has received a great deal of attention owing to the possible occurrence of exotic superfluid phases. By using novel numerical techniques and algorithms, we self-consistently solve the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations, which describe Fermi superfluids in the mean-field framework. From this study, we investigate the novel phases of spin-imbalanced Fermi gases and examine the validity of local density approximation (LDA), which is often invoked in the extraction of bulk properties from experimental measurements within trapped systems. We show how the validity of the LDA is affected by the trapping geometry, the number of atoms and the spin imbalance.

Thermodynamics of balanced and slightly spin-imbalanced Fermi gases at unitarity

In this paper we present a Monte Carlo calculation of the critical temperature and other thermodynamic quantities for the unitary Fermi gas with a population imbalance (unequal number of fermions in the two spin components). We describe an improved worm type algorithm that is less prone to autocorrelations than the previously available methods and show how this algorithm can be applied to simulate the unitary Fermi gas in presence of a small imbalance. Our data indicates that the critical temperature remains almost constant for small imbalances $h=\Delta\mu/\epsilon_F\lessapprox0.2$. We obtain the continuum result $T_c=0.171(5)\epsilon_F$ in units of Fermi energy and derive a lower bound on the deviation of the critical temperature from the balanced limit, $T_c(h)-T_c(0)>-0.5\epsilon_Fh^2$. Using an additional assumption a tighter lower bound can be obtained. We also calculate the energy per particle and the chemical potential in the balanced and imbalanced cases.

Modulated pair condensate ofp-orbital ultracold fermions

We show that an interesting of pairing occurs for spin-imbalanced Fermi gases under a specific experimental condition---the spin up and spin down Fermi levels lying within the $p_x$ and $s$ orbital bands of an optical lattice, respectively. The pairs condense at a finite momentum equal to the sum of the two Fermi momenta of spin up and spin down fermions and form a $p$-orbital pair condensate. This $2k_F$ momentum dependence has been seen before in the spin- and charge- density waves, but it differs from the usual $p$-wave superfluids such as $^3$He, where the orbital symmetry refers to the relative motion within each pair. Our conclusion is based on the density matrix renormalization group analysis for the one-dimensional (1D) system and mean-field theory for the quasi-1D system. The phase diagram of the quasi-1D system is calculated, showing that the $p$-orbital pair condensate occurs in a wide range of fillings. In the strongly attractive limit, the system realizes an unconventional BEC beyond Feynman's no-node theorem. The possible experimental signatures of this phase in molecule projection experiment are discussed.

Probing the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov Phase by Double Occupancy Modulation Spectroscopy

In this Letter we consider a spin-imbalanced two-component attractive Fermi gas loaded in a 1D optical lattice in the presence of an harmonic confining potential. We propose that the observation of the change in the double occupancy with respect to a lattice depth modulation can provide clear evidence of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase. Simulating the time evolution of the system, we can characterize the double occupancy spectrum for different initial conditions. In particular, we numerically observe a striking narrowing of the width of the spectrum for increasing imbalance. Using Bethe-ansatz equations in the strongly interacting limit, we show that the width relates directly to the FFLO wave vector q.

Phase separation of trapped spin-imbalanced Fermi gases in one-dimensional optical lattices

We calculate the density profiles of a trapped spin-imbalanced Fermi gas with attractive interactions in a one-dimensional optical lattice, using both the local density approximation (LDA) and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations. Based on the exact equation of state obtained by Bethe ansatz, LDA predicts that the gas phase-separates into shells with a partially polarized core and fully paired wings, where the latter occurs below a critical spin polarization. This behavior is also seen in numerically exact DMRG calculations at sufficiently large particle numbers. Unlike the continuum case, we show that the critical polarization is a non monotonic function of the interaction strength and vanishes in the limit of large interactions.

BCS-BEC crossover and the disappearance of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov correlations in a spin-imbalanced one-dimensional Fermi gas

We present a numerical study of the one-dimensional BCS-BEC crossover of a spin-imbalanced Fermi gas. The crossover is described by the Bose-Fermi resonance model in a real space representation. Our main interest is in the behavior of the pair correlations, which, in the BCS limit, are of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) type, while in the Bose-Einstein condensate limit, a superfluid of diatomic molecules forms that exhibits quasi-condensation at zero momentum. We use the density matrix renormalization group method to compute the phase diagram as a function of the detuning of the molecular level and the polarization. As a main result, we show that FFLO-like correlations disappear well below full polarization close to the resonance. The critical polarization depends on both the detuning and the filling.

Evaporative depolarization and spin transport in a unitary trapped Fermi gas

We consider a partially spin-polarized atomic Fermi gas in a high-aspect-ratio trap, with a flux of predominantly spin-up atoms exiting the center of the trap. We argue that such a scenario can be produced by evaporative cooling, and we find that it can result in a substantially nonequilibrium polarization pattern for typical experimental parameters. We offer this as a possible explanation for the quantitative discrepancies in recent experiments on spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases.

Analytic Thermodynamics and Thermometry of Gaudin-Yang Fermi Gases

We study the thermodynamics of a one-dimensional attractive Fermi gas (the Gaudin-Yang model) with spin imbalance. The exact solution has been known from the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz for decades, but it involves an infinite number of coupled nonlinear integral equations whose physics is difficult to extract. Here the solution is analytically reduced to a simple, powerful set of four algebraic equations. The simplified equations become universal and exact in the experimental regime of strong interaction and relatively low temperature. Using the new formulation, we discuss the qualitative features of finite-temperature crossover and make quantitative predictions on the density profiles in traps. We propose a practical two-stage scheme to achieve accurate thermometry for a trapped spin-imbalanced Fermi gas.

Paired states in spin-imbalanced atomic Fermi gases in one dimension

A growing expertise to engineer, manipulate and probe different cold-atom analogs of electronic condensed matter systems allows to probe properties of exotic pairing. We study paired states of spin-imbalanced ultracold atomic system of fermions with attractive short-range interactions in one-dimensional traps. Calculations are done using the Bethe Ansatz technique and the trap is incorporated into the solution via a local density approximation. The thermodynamic-Bethe-Ansatz equations are solved numerically and different local density profiles are calculated for zero and finite temperatures. A procedure to identify the homogeneous-system phase diagram using local density profiles in the trap is also proposed. Such scheme would be immediately useful for the experiments.

Quantum simulation of the Hubbard model: The attractive route

We study the conditions under which, using a canonical transformation, the phases sought after for the repulsive Hubbard model, namely, a Mott insulator in the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases, and a putative $d$-wave superfluid can be deduced from observations in an optical lattice loaded with a spin-imbalanced ultracold Fermi gas with attractive interactions, thus realizing the attractive Hubbard model. We argue that the Mott insulator and antiferromagnetic phase of the repulsive Hubbard model are easier to observe in the attractive Hubbard mode as a band insulator of Cooper pairs and superfluid phase, respectively. The putative $d$-wave superfluid phase of the repulsive Hubbard model doped away from half filling is related to a $d$-wave antiferromagnetic phase for the attractive Hubbard model. We discuss the advantages of this approach to ``quantum simulate'' the Hubbard model in an optical lattice over the simulation of the doped Hubbard model in the repulsive regime. We also point out a number of technical difficulties of the proposed approach and, in some cases, suggest possible solutions.

Pair Correlations of a Spin-Imbalanced Fermi Gas on Two-Leg Ladders

We study the pair correlations of a spin-imbalanced two-leg ladder with attractive interactions, using the density matrix renormalization group method. We identify regions in the phase diagram spanned by the chemical potential and the magnetic field that can harbor Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov- (FFLO-)like physics. Results for the pair structure factor, exhibiting multiple pairing wave vectors, substantiate the presence of FFLO-like correlations. We further discuss phase separation scenarios induced by a harmonic trap, which differ from the case of isolated chains.