State Of Fermionic Atoms Research Articles

Postadiabatic Hamiltonian for low-energy excitations in a slowly-time-dependent BCS-BEC crossover

We develop a Hamiltonian that describes the time-dependent formation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer state of fermionic atoms as a result of slowly sweeping through a Feshbach resonance. In contrast to many other calculations in the field, our Hamiltonian includes the leading postadiabatic effects that arise because the crossover proceeds at a nonzero sweep rate. We apply a path-integral approach and a stationary phase approximation for the molecular $\mathbf{k}=\mathbf{0}$ background, which is a good approximation for narrow resonances [see, e.g., Diehl and Wetterich, Phys. Rev. A 73, 033615 (2006) as well as Diehl, Gies, Pawlowski, and Wetterich, Phys. Rev. A 76, 053627 (2007)]. We use two-body adiabatic approximations to solve the atomic evolution within this background. The dynamics of the $\mathbf{k}\ensuremath{\ne}\mathbf{0}$ molecular modes is solved within a dilute gas approximation and by mapping it onto a purely bosonic Hamiltonian. Our main result is a postadiabatic effective Hamiltonian in terms of the instantaneous bosonic (Anderson-)Bogoliubov modes, which holds throughout the whole resonance, as long as the Feshbach sweep is slow enough to avoid breaking Cooper pairs.

Density-wave and antiferromagnetic states of fermionic atoms in optical lattices

We study two-band effects on ultracold fermionic atoms in optical lattices by means of dynamical mean-field theory. We find that at half filling an atomic-density-wave (ADW) state emerges owing to the two-band effects in the attractive interaction region, while an antiferromagnetic state appears in the repulsive interaction region. As the orbital splitting is increased, quantum phase transitions from the ADW state to the superfluid state and from the antiferromagnetic state to the metallic state occur in the corresponding regions. By systematically changing the orbital splitting and the interaction, we obtain the phase diagram at half filling. The results are discussed using the effective boson model derived for strong attractive interaction.

Quantum fluctuations in the time-dependent BCS–BEC crossover

We describe the time-dependent formation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate from a BCS state of fermionic atoms as a result of slow sweeping through a Feshbach resonance. We apply a path integral approach for the molecules, and use two-body adiabatic approximations to solve the atomic evolution in the presence of the classical molecular fields, obtaining an effective action for the molecules. In the narrow resonance limit, the problem becomes semiclassical, and we discuss the growth of the molecular condensate in the saddle point approximation. Considering this time-dependent process as an analogue of the cosmological Zurek scenario, we compare the way condensate growth is driven in this rigorous theory with its phenomenological description via time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory.

D-Wave Resonating Valence Bond States of Fermionic Atoms in Optical Lattices

We study controlled generation and measurement of superfluid d-wave resonating valence bond (RVB) states of fermionic atoms in 2D optical lattices. Starting from loading spatial and spin patterns of atoms in optical superlattices as pure quantum states from a Fermi gas, we adiabatically transform this state to an RVB state by a change of the lattice parameters. Results of exact time-dependent numerical studies for ladders systems are presented, suggesting generation of RVB states on a time scale smaller than typical experimental decoherence times.