No Arabic abstract
The virial expansion characterizes the high-temperature approach to the quantum-classical crossover in any quantum many-body system. Here, we calculate the virial coefficients up to the fifth-order of Fermi gases in 1D, 2D, and 3D, with attractive contact interactions, as relevant for a variety of applications in atomic and nuclear physics. To that end, we discretize the imaginary-time direction and calculate the relevant canonical partition functions. In coarse discretizations, we obtain analytic results featuring relationships between the interaction-induced changes $Delta b_3$, $Delta b_4$, and $Delta b_5$ as functions of $Delta b_2$, the latter being exactly known in many cases by virtue of the Beth-Uhlenbeck formula. Using automated-algebra methods, we push our calculations to progressively finer discretizations and extrapolate to the continuous-time limit. We find excellent agreement for $Delta b_3$ with previous calculations in all dimensions and we formulate predictions for $Delta b_4$ and $Delta b_5$ in 1D and 2D. We also provide, for a range of couplings,the subspace contributions $Delta b_{31}$, $Delta b_{22}$, $Delta b_{41}$, and $Delta b_{32}$, which determine the equation of state and static response of polarized systems at high temperature. As a performance check, we compare the density equation of state and Tan contact with quantum Monte Carlo calculations, diagrammatic approaches, and experimental data where available. Finally, we apply Pade and Pade-Borel resummation methods to extend the usefulness of the virial coefficients to approach and in some cases go beyond the unit-fugacity point.
By generalizing our automated algebra approach from homogeneous space to harmonically trapped systems, we have calculated the fourth- and fifth-order virial coefficients of universal spin-1/2 fermions in the unitary limit, confined in an isotropic harmonic potential. We present results for said coefficients as a function of trapping frequency (or, equivalently, temperature), which compare favorably with previous Monte Carlo calculations (available only at fourth order) as well as with our previous estimates in the untrapped limit (high temperature, low frequency). We use our estimates of the virial expansion, together with resummation techniques, to calculate the compressibility and spin susceptibility.
In the current era of precision quantum many-body physics, one of the most scrutinized systems is the unitary limit of the nonrelativistic spin-$1/2$ Fermi gas, due to its simplicity and relevance for atomic, condensed matter, and nuclear physics. The thermodynamics of this strongly correlated system is determined by universal functions which, at high temperature, are governed by universal virial coefficients $b_n$ that capture the effects of the $n$-body system on the many-body dynamics. Currently, $b_2$ and $b_3$ are well understood, but the situation is less clear for $b_4$, and no predictions have been made for $b_5$. To answer these open questions, we implement a nonperturbative analytic approach based on the Trotter-Suzuki factorization of the imaginary-time evolution operator, using progressively finer temporal lattice spacings. Implementing these factorizations and automated algebra codes, we obtain the interaction-induced change $Delta b_n$ from weak coupling to unitarity. At unitarity, we find: $Delta b_3 = -0.356(4)$, in agreement with previous results; $Delta b_4 = 0.062(2)$, in agreement with all previous theoretical estimates but at odds with experimental determinations; and $Delta b_5 = 0.078(6)$, which is a prediction. We show the impact of those answers on the density equation of state and Tan contact, and track their origin back to their polarized and unpolarized components.
We present an experimental investigation of collective oscillations in harmonically trapped Fermi gases through the crossover from two to three dimensions. Specifically, we measure the frequency of the radial monopole or breathing mode as a function of dimensionality in Fermi gases with tunable interactions. The frequency of this mode is set by the adiabatic compressibility and probes the thermodynamic equation of state. In 2D, a dynamical scaling symmetry for atoms interacting via a {delta}-potential predicts the breathing mode to occur at exactly twice the harmonic confinement frequency. However, a renormalized quantum treatment introduces a new length scale which breaks this classical scale invariance resulting in a so-called quantum anomaly. Our measurements deep in the 2D regime lie above the scale-invariant prediction for a range of interaction strengths indicating the breakdown of a {delta}-potential model for atomic interactions. As the dimensionality is tuned from 2D to 3D we see the breathing oscillation frequency evolve smoothly towards the 3D limit.
Motivated by the realization of hard-wall boundary conditions in experiments with ultracold atoms, we investigate the ground-state properties of spin-1/2 fermions with attractive interactions in a one-dimensional box. We use lattice Monte Carlo methods to determine essential quantities like the energy, which we compute as a function of coupling strength and particle number in the regime from few to many particles. Many-fermion systems bound by hard walls display non-trivial density profiles characterized by so-called Friedel oscillations (which are similar to those observed in harmonic traps). In non-interacting systems, the characteristic length scale of the oscillations is set by (2 kF)^(-1), where kF is the Fermi momentum, while repulsive interactions tend to generate Wigner-crystal oscillations of period (4 kF)^(-1). Based on the non-interacting result, we find a remarkably simple parametrization of the density profiles of the attractively interacting case, which we generalize to the one-body density matrix. While the total momentum is not a conserved quantity in the presence of hard walls, the magnitude of the momentum does provide a good quantum number. We are therefore able to provide a detailed characterization of the (quasi-)momentum distribution, which displays rather robust discontinuity at the Fermi surface. In addition, we determine the spatially varying on-site density-density correlation, which in turn yields Tans contact density and, upon integration, Tans contact. As is well known, the latter fully determines the short-range correlations and plays a crucial role in a multitude of equilibrium and non-equilibrium sum rules.
We have studied the transition from two to three dimensions in a low temperature weakly interacting $^6$Li Fermi gas. Below a critical atom number, $N_{2D}$, only the lowest transverse vibrational state of a highly anisotropic oblate trapping potential is occupied and the gas is two-dimensional. Above $N_{2D}$ the Fermi gas enters the quasi-2D regime where shell structure associated with the filling of individual transverse oscillator states is apparent. This dimensional crossover is demonstrated through measurements of the cloud size and aspect ratio versus atom number.