Thermodynamic characteristics of ideal quantum gases in harmonic potentials within exact and semiclassical approaches

Abstract

We theoretically examine equilibrium properties of the harmonically trapped ideal Bose and Fermi gases in the quantum degeneracy regime. We analyze thermodynamic characteristics of gases with a finite number of atoms by means of the known semiclassical approach and perform comparison with exact numerical results. For a Fermi gas, we demonstrate deviations in the Fermi energy values originating from a discrete level structure and show that these are observable only for a small number of particles. For a Bose gas, we observe characteristic softening of phase transition features, which contrasts to the semiclassical predictions and related approximations. We provide a more accurate methodology of determining corrections to the critical temperature due to finite number of particles.