Phase diagram of a cold polarized Fermi gas

Abstract

We propose a phase diagram for a cold polarized atomic Fermi gas with zero-range interaction. We identify four main phases in the plane of density and polarization: the superfluid phase, the normal phase, the gapless superfluid phase, and the modulated phase. We argue that there exists a Lifshitz point at the junction of the normal, the gapless superfluid, and the modulated phases, and a splitting point where the superfluid, the gapless superfluid, and the modulated phases meet. We show that the physics near the splitting point is universal and derive an effective field theory describing it. We also show that subregions with one and two Fermi surfaces exist within the normal and the gapless superfluid phases.