Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov states in one-dimensional spin-polarized ultracold atomic Fermi gases

Journal Article · Mon Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.76.043605· OSTI ID:21020772

Xiaji, Liu; Hui, Hu ^[1]; Drummond, Peter D ^[1]

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1. ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics, School of Physical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072 (Australia)

We present a systematic study of quantum phases in a one-dimensional spin-polarized Fermi gas. Three comparative theoretical methods are used to explore the phase diagram at zero temperature: the mean-field theory with either an order parameter in a single-plane-wave form or a self-consistently determined order parameter using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations, as well as the exact Bethe ansatz method. We find that a spatially inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phase, which lies between the fully paired Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) state and the fully polarized normal state, dominates most of the phase diagram of a uniform gas. The phase transition from the BCS state to the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phase is of second order, and therefore there are no phase separation states in one-dimensional homogeneous polarized gases. This is in sharp contrast to the three-dimensional situation, where a phase separation regime is predicted to occupy a very large space in the phase diagram. We conjecture that the prediction of the dominance of the phase separation phases in three dimension could be an artifact of the non-self-consistent mean-field approximation, which is heavily used in the study of three-dimensional polarized Fermi gases. We consider also the effect of a harmonic trapping potential on the phase diagram, and find that in this case the trap generally leads to phase separation, in accord with the experimental observations for a trapped gas in three dimensions. We finally investigate the local fermionic density of states of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov ansatz. A two-energy-gap structure appears, which could be used as an experimental probe of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov states.

• OSTI ID: 21020772
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 76, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.043605; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BCS THEORY
BOUND STATE
ENERGY GAP
EQUATIONS
FERMI GAS
FERMIONS
FORECASTING
GASES
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ORDER PARAMETERS
PHASE DIAGRAMS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
POTENTIALS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
SPIN ORIENTATION
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0000-0013 K
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TRAPPING
WAVE PROPAGATION