A gas of interacting ultracold fermions can be tuned into a strongly interacting regime using a Feshbach resonance. Here we theoretically study quasiparticle transport in a system of two reservoirs of interacting ultracold fermions on the BCS side of the BCS-BEC crossover coupled weakly via a tunnel junction. Using the generalized BCS theory we calculate the time evolution of the system that is assumed to be initially prepared in a non-equilibrium state characterized by a particle number imbalance or a temperature imbalance. A number of characteristic features like sharp peaks in quasiparticle currents, or transitions between the normal and superconducting states are found. We discuss signatures of the Seebeck and the Peltier effect and the resulting temperature difference of the two reservoirs as a function of the interaction parameter $(k_Fa)^{-1}$. The Peltier effect may lead to an additional cooling mechanism for ultracold fermionic atoms.
The experimental realization of stable, ultracold Fermi gases near a Feshbach resonance allows to study gases with attractive interactions of essentially arbitrary strength. They extend the classic paradigm of BCS into a regime which has never been accessible before. We review the theoretical concepts which have been developed in this context, including the Tan relations and the notion of fixed points at zero density, which are at the origin of universality. We discuss in detail the universal thermodynamics of the unitary Fermi gas which allows a fit free comparison between theory and experiment for this strongly interacting system. In addition, we adress the consequences of scale invariance at infinite scattering length and the subtle violation of scale invariance in two dimensions. Finally we discuss the Fermionic excitation spectrum accessible in momentum resolved RF-spectroscopy and the origin of universal lower bounds for the shear viscosity and the spin diffusion constant.
We report on the creation of homogeneous Fermi gases of ultracold atoms in a uniform potential. In the momentum distribution of a spin-polarized gas, we observe the emergence of the Fermi surface and the saturated occupation of one particle per momentum state. This directly confirms Pauli blocking in momentum space. For the spin-balanced unitary Fermi gas, we observe spatially uniform pair condensates. For thermodynamic measurements, we introduce a hybrid potential that is harmonic in one dimension and uniform in the other two. The spatially resolved compressibility reveals the superfluid transition in a spin-balanced Fermi gas, saturation in a fully polarized Fermi gas, and strong attraction in the polaronic regime of a partially polarized Fermi gas.
Josephson junctions and junction arrays are well studied devices in superconductivity. With external magnetic fields one can modulate the phase in a long junction and create traveling, solitonic waves of magnetic flux, called fluxons. Today, it is also possible to device two different types of junctions: depending on the sign of the critical current density, they are called 0- or pi-junction. In turn, a 0-pi junction is formed by joining two of such junctions. As a result, one obtains a pinned Josephson vortex of fractional magnetic flux, at the 0-pi boundary. Here, we analyze this arrangement of superconducting junctions in the context of an atomic bosonic quantum gas, where two-state atoms in a double well trap are coupled in an analogous fashion. There, an all-optical 0-pi Josephson junction is created by the phase of a complex valued Rabi-frequency and we a derive a discrete four-mode model for this situation, which qualitatively resembles a semifluxon.
Fermi gases with generalized Rashba spin orbit coupling inducedby a synthetic gauge field have the potential of realizing many interesting states such as rashbon condensates and topological phases. Here we develop a fluctuation theory of such systems and demonstrate that beyond-Gaussian effects are essential to capture the physics of such systems. We obtain their phase diagram by constructing an approximate non-Gaussian theory. We conclusively establish that spin-orbit coupling can enhance the exponentially small transition temperature ($T_c$) of a weakly attracting superfluid to the order of Fermi temperature, paving a pathway towards high $T_c$ superfluids.
Ultracold atomic Fermi gases present an opportunity to study strongly interacting Fermi systems in a controlled and uncomplicated setting. The ability to tune attractive interactions has led to the discovery of superfluidity in these systems with an extremely high transition temperature, near T/T_F = 0.2. This superfluidity is the electrically neutral analog of superconductivity; however, superfluidity in atomic Fermi gases occurs in the limit of strong interactions and defies a conventional BCS description. For these strong interactions, it is predicted that the onset of pairing and superfluidity can occur at different temperatures. This gives rise to a pseudogap region where, for a range of temperatures, the system retains some of the characteristics of the superfluid phase, such as a BCS-like dispersion and a partially gapped density of states, but does not exhibit superfluidity. By making two independent measurements: the direct observation of pair condensation in momentum space and a measurement of the single-particle spectral function using an analog to photoemission spectroscopy, we directly probe the pseudogap phase. Our measurements reveal a BCS-like dispersion with back-bending near the Fermi wave vector k_F that persists well above the transition temperature for pair condensation.