arXiv subjects

G. M. Bruun

Publications and source records attributed to G. M. Bruun.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Repulsive polarons and itinerant ferromagnetism in strongly polarized Fermi gases

We analyze the properties of a single impurity immersed in a Fermi sea. At positive energy and scattering lengths, we show that the system possesses a well-defined but metastable excitation, the repulsive polaron, and we calculate its energy, quasiparticle residue and effective mass. From a thermodynamic argument we obtain the number of particles in the dressing cloud, illustrating the repulsive character of the polaron. Identifying the important 2- and 3-body decay channels, we furthermore calculate the lifetime of the repulsive polaron. The stability conditions for the formation of fully spin polarized (ferromagnetic) domains are then examined for a binary mixture of atoms with a general mass ratio. Our results indicate that mass imbalance lowers the critical interaction strength for phase-separation, but that very short quasiparticle decay times will complicate the experimental observation of itinerant ferromagnetism. Finally, we present the spectral function of the impurity for various coupling strengths and momenta.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Spin diffusion in Fermi gases

We examine spin diffusion in a two-component homogeneous Fermi gas in the normal phase. Using a variational approach, analytical results are presented for the spin diffusion coefficient and the related spin relaxation time as a function of temperature and interaction strength. For low temperatures, strong correlation effects are included through the Landau parameters which we extract from Monte Carlo results. We show that the spin diffusion coefficient has a minimum for a temperature somewhat below the Fermi temperature with a value that approaches the quantum limit $\sim\hbar/m$ in the unitarity regime where $m$ is the particle mass. We finally derive a value for the low temperature shear viscosity in the normal phase from the Landau parameters.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2011

Polarons and Molecules in a Two-Dimensional Fermi Gas

We study an impurity atom in a two-dimensional Fermi gas using variational wave functions for (i) an impurity dressed by particle-hole excitations (polaron) and (ii) a dimer consisting of the impurity and a majority atom. In contrast to three dimensions, where similar calculations predict a sharp transition to a dimer state with increasing interspecies attraction, we show that the polaron ansatz always gives a lower energy. However, the exact solution for a heavy impurity reveals that both a two-body bound state and distortions of the Fermi sea are crucial. This reflects the importance of particle-hole pairs in lower dimensions and makes simple variational calculations unreliable. We show that the energy of an impurity gives important information about its dressing cloud, for which both ansätze give inaccurate results.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Tunable Wigner States with Dipolar Atoms and Molecules

We study the few-body physics of trapped atoms or molecules with electric or magnetic dipole moments aligned by an external field. Using exact numerical diagonalization appropriate for the strongly correlated regime, as well as a classical analysis, we show how Wigner localization emerges with increasing coupling strength. The Wigner states exhibit non-trivial geometries due to the anisotropy of the interaction. This leads to transitions between different Wigner states as the tilt angle of the dipoles with the confining plane is changed. Intriguingly, while the individual Wigner states are well described by a classical analysis, the transitions between different Wigner states are strongly affected by quantum statistics. This can be understood by considering the interplay between quantum-mechanical and spatial symmetry properties. Finally, we demonstrate that our results are relevant to experimentally realistic systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Decay of polarons and molecules in a strongly polarized Fermi gas

The ground state of an impurity immersed in a Fermi sea changes from a polaron to a molecule as the interaction strength is increased. We show here that the coupling between these two states is strongly suppressed due to a combination of phase space effects and Fermi statistics, and that it vanishes much faster than the energy difference between the two states, thereby confirming the first order nature of the polaron-molecule transition. In the regime where each state is metastable, we find quasiparticle lifetimes which are much longer than what is expected for a usual Fermi liquid. Our analysis indicates that the decay rates are sufficiently slow to be experimentally observable.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2010

Clock shifts in a Fermi gas interacting with a minority component: a soluble model

We consider the absorption spectrum of a Fermi gas mixed with a minority species when majority fermions are transferred to another internal state by an external probe. In the limit when the minority species is much more massive than the majority one, we show that the minority species may be treated as static impurities and the problem can be solved in closed form. The analytical results bring out the importance of vertex corrections, which change qualitatively the nature of the absorption spectrum. It is demonstrated that large line shifts are not associated with resonant interactions in general. We also show that the commonly used ladder approximation fails when the majority component is degenerate for large mass ratios between the minority and majority species and that bubble diagrams, which correspond to the creation of many particle--hole pairs, must be taken into account. We carry out detailed numerical calculations, which confirm the analytical insights and we point out the connection to shadowing phenomena in nuclear physics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Antiferromagnetic noise correlations in optical lattices

We analyze how noise correlations probed by time-of-flight (TOF) experiments reveal antiferromagnetic (AF) correlations of fermionic atoms in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) optical lattices. Combining analytical and quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations using experimentally realistic parameters, we show that AF correlations can be detected for temperatures above and below the critical temperature for AF ordering. It is demonstrated that spin-resolved noise correlations yield important information about the spin ordering. Finally, we show how to extract the spin correlation length and the related critical exponent of the AF transition from the noise.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2009

Feshbach Resonances and Medium Effects in ultracold atomic Gases

We develop an effective low energy theory for multi-channel scattering of cold atomic alkali atoms with particular focus on Feshbach resonances. The scattering matrix is expressed in terms of observables only and the theory allows for the inclusion of many-body effects both in the open and in the closed channels. We then consider the frequency and damping of collective modes for Fermi gases and demonstrate how medium effects significantly increase the scattering rate determining the nature of the modes. Our results obtained with no fitting parameters are shown to compare well with experimental data.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Quantum phases of a Two-Dimensional Dipolar Fermi Gas

We examine the superfluid and collapse instabilities of a quasi two-dimensional gas of dipolar fermions aligned by an orientable external field. It is shown that the interplay between the anisotropy of the dipolar interaction, the geometry of the system, and the p-wave symmetry of the superfluid order parameter means that the effective interaction for pairing can be made very large without the system collapsing. This leads to a broad region in the phase diagram where the system forms a stable superfluid. Analyzing the superfluid transition at finite temperatures, we calculate the Berezinskii--Kosterlitz--Thouless temperature as a function of the dipole angle.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Probing spatial spin correlations of ultracold gases by quantum noise spectroscopy

Spin noise spectroscopy with a single laser beam is demonstrated theoretically to provide a direct probe of the spatial correlations of cold fermionic gases. We show how the generic many-body phenomena of anti-bunching, pairing, antiferromagnetic, and algebraic spin liquid correlations can be revealed by measuring the spin noise as a function of laser width, temperature, and frequency.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Collective oscillations of a Fermi gas in the unitarity limit: Temperature effects and the role of pair correlations

We present detailed measurements of the frequency and damping of three different collective modes in an ultracold trapped Fermi gas of $^6$Li atoms with resonantly tuned interactions. The measurements are carried out over a wide range of temperatures. We focus on the unitarity limit, where the scattering length is much greater than all other relevant length scales. The results are compared to theoretical calculations that take into account Pauli blocking and pair correlations in the normal state above the critical temperature for superfluidity. We show that these two effects nearly compensate each other and the behavior of the gas is close to the one of a classical gas.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Spin polarons and molecules in strongly-interacting atomic Fermi gases

We examine pairing and molecule formation in strongly-interacting Fermi gases, and we discuss how radio-frequency (RF) spectroscopy can reveal these features. For the balanced case, the emergence of stable molecules in the BEC regime results in a two-peak structure in the RF spectrum with clearly visible medium effects on the low-energy part of the molecular wavefunction. For the highly-imbalanced case, we show the existence of a well-defined quasiparticle (a spin polaron) on both sides of the Feshbach resonance, we evaluate its lifetime, and we illustrate how its energy may be measured by RF spectroscopy.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Collisional Properties of a Polarized Fermi Gas with Resonant Interactions

Highly polarized mixtures of atomic Fermi gases constitute a novel Fermi liquid. We demonstrate how information on thermodynamic properties may be used to calculate quasiparticle scattering amplitudes even when the interaction is resonant and apply the results to evaluate the damping of the spin dipole mode. We estimate that under current experimental conditions, the mode would be intermediate between the hydrodynamic and collisionless limits.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Twin peaks in rf spectra of Fermi gases at unitarity

We calculate the radio-frequency spectrum of balanced and imbalanced ultracold Fermi gases in the normal phase at unitarity. For the homogeneous case the spectrum of both the majority and minority components always has a single peak even in the pseudogap regime. We furthermore show how the double-peak structures observed in recent experiments arise due to the inhomogeneity of the trapped gas. The main experimental features observed above the critical temperature in the recent experiment of Schunck et al. [Science 316, 867, (2007)] are recovered with no fitting parameters.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2007

Frequency and damping of the Scissors Mode of a Fermi gas

We calculate the frequency and damping of the scissors mode in a classical gas as a function of temperature and coupling strength. Our results show good agreement with the main features observed in recent measurements of the scissors mode in an ultracold gas of $^6$Li atoms. The comparison between theory and experiment involves no fitting parameters and thus allows an identification of non-classical effects at and near the unitarity limit.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Magnetic and superfluid phases of confined fermions in two-dimensional optical lattices

We examine antiferromagnetic and d-wave superfluid phases of cold fermionic atoms with repulsive interactions in a two-dimensional optical lattice combined with a harmonic trapping potential. For experimentally realistic parameters, the trapping potential leads to the coexistence of magnetic and superfluid ordered phases with the normal phase. We study the intriguing shell structures arising from the competition between the magnetic and superfluid order as a function of the filling fraction. In certain cases antiferromagnetism induce superfluidity by charge redistributions. We furthermore demonstrate how these shell structures can be detected as distinct anti-bunching dips and pairing peaks in the density-density correlation function probed in expansion experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Shear viscosity and damping for a Fermi gas in the unitarity limit

The shear viscosity of a two-component Fermi gas in the normal phase is calculated as a function of temperature in the unitarity limit, taking into account strong-coupling effects that give rise to a pseudogap in the spectral density for single-particle excitations. The results indicate that recent measurements of the damping of collective modes in trapped atomic clouds can be understood in terms of hydrodynamics, with a decay rate given by the viscosity integrated over an effective volume of the cloud.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Bragg Spectroscopy of Cold Atomic Fermi Gases

We propose a Bragg spectroscopy experiment to measure the onset of superfluid pairing in ultracold trapped Fermi gases. In particular, we study two component Fermi gases in the weak coupling BCS and BEC limits as well as in the strong coupling unitarity limit. The low temperature Bragg spectrum exhibits a gap directly related to the pair-breaking energy. Furthermore, the Bragg spectrum has a large maximum just below the critical temperature when the gas is superfluid in the BCS limit. In the unitarity regime, we show how the pseudogap in the normal phase leads to a significant suppression of the low frequency Bragg spectrum.

cond-mat.supr-con↗