Mean-field study of itinerant ferromagnetism in trapped ultracold Fermi gases: Beyond the local-density approximation

Journal Article · Thu Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.82.013627· OSTI ID:21442976

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

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1. ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics, Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne 3122 (Australia)

We theoretically investigate the itinerant ferromagnetic transition of a spherically trapped ultracold Fermi gas with spin imbalance under strongly repulsive interatomic interactions. Our study is based on a self-consistent solution of the Hartree-Fock mean-field equations beyond the widely used local-density approximation. We demonstrate that, while the local-density approximation holds in the paramagnetic phase, after the ferromagnetic transition it leads to a quantitative discrepancy in various thermodynamic quantities even with large atom numbers. We determine the position of the phase transition by monitoring the shape change of the free-energy curve with increasing the polarization at various interaction strengths.

• OSTI ID: 21442976
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 82; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
APPROXIMATIONS
CALCULATION METHODS
DENSITY
ENERGY
EQUATIONS
FERMI GAS
FERROMAGNETISM
FIELD EQUATIONS
FREE ENERGY
HARTREE-FOCK METHOD
MAGNETISM
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
PARAMAGNETISM
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POLARIZATION
SPIN
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRAPPING