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Title: Viscosity of strongly interacting quantum fluids: Spectral functions and sum rules

Journal Article · · Physical Review. A
;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 (United States)

The viscosity of strongly interacting systems is a topic of great interest in diverse fields. We focus here on the bulk and shear viscosities of nonrelativistic quantum fluids, with particular emphasis on strongly interacting ultracold Fermi gases. We use Kubo formulas for the bulk and shear viscosity spectral functions, {zeta}({omega}) and {eta}({omega}), respectively, to derive exact, nonperturbative results. Our results include a microscopic connection between the shear viscosity {eta} and the normal-fluid density {rho}{sub n}; sum rules for {zeta}({omega}) and {eta}({omega}) and their evolution through the BCS-BEC crossover (where BEC denotes Bose-Einstein condensate); and universal high-frequency tails for {eta}({omega}) and the dynamic structure factor S(q,{omega}). We use our sum rules to show that, at unitarity, {zeta}({omega}) is identically zero and thus relate {eta}({omega}) to density-density correlations. We predict that frequency-dependent shear viscosity {eta}({omega}) of the unitary Fermi gas can be experimentally measured using Bragg spectroscopy.

OSTI ID:
21408868
Journal Information:
Physical Review. A, Vol. 81, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.81.053610; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 1050-2947
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English