skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Density-functional theory of strongly correlated Fermi gases in elongated harmonic traps

Journal Article · · Physical Review. A
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.73.0· OSTI ID:20786967
; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. NEST-CNR-INFM and Scuola Normale Superiore, I-56126 Pisa (Italy)
  2. Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, Tehran 19395-5531 (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

Two-component Fermi gases with tunable repulsive or attractive interactions inside quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) harmonic wells may soon become the cleanest laboratory realizations of strongly correlated Luttiger and Luther-Emery liquids under confinement. We present a microscopic Kohn-Sham density-functional theory of these systems, with specific attention to a gas on the approach to a confinement-induced Feshbach resonance. The theory employs the one-dimensional Gaudin-Yang model as the reference system and transfers the appropriate Q1D ground-state correlations to the confined inhomogeneous gas via a suitable local-density approximation to the exchange and correlation energy functional. Quantitative understanding of the role of the interactions in the bulk shell structure of the axial density profile is thereby achieved. While repulsive intercomponent interactions depress the amplitude of the shell structure of the noninteracting gas, attractive interactions stabilize atomic-density waves through spin pairing. These should be clearly observable in atomic clouds containing of the order of up to 100 atoms.

OSTI ID:
20786967
Journal Information:
Physical Review. A, Vol. 73, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.73.033609; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English