Ultracold Fermi Gases

Lecture

Thomas Gasenzer

Friday, 15:15-17:00, SR Pw 19 [LSF]

Content:

• Ideal Fermi gases: uniform & trapped - The ideal Fermi gas - Fluctuations and coherence - Fermi gases in a trap
  
• Two-body collisions
  - Low-energy scattering theory - Feshbach resonances - Bethe-Peierls model - Universality
  
• Many-body theory of a two-component Fermi gas
  - Hamiltonian - Order parameter, BCS ansatz - Variational BCS solution - Diagonalization of the BCS Hamiltonian - BCS equations for a homogeneous gas - Energy gap - BCS limit - BEC limit - Unitarity limit
  
• Dynamics and superfluidity
  - Time-dependent BCS theory - Correlation lengths - Hydrodynamic equations - Order Parameter and Gap - Superfluidity - Phonons vs. pair-breaking - Collective oscillations - Landau criterion - Dynamic and static structure factor - RF transitions
  
• Rotating Fermi gases
  - Moments of inertia - Scissors mode - Quantized Vortices - Vortices in BCS theory
  

Prerequisites:

• Quantum Mechanics (Theoretical Physics III), Statistical Mechanics (Theor. Phys. IV) would be helpful

Literature:

• K. Huang, "Statistical Mechanics", Wiley (1987).
• S. Giorgini, L. P. Pitaevskii, and S. Stringari, "Theory of ultracold atomic Fermi gases", Download from arXiv:0706.3360v2 [cond-mat.other].
• Y. Castin, "Basic theory tools for degenerate Fermi gases", Download from arXiv:0612613v2 [cond-mat.other].
• K. Levin and Q. Chen, "Finite temperature effects in ultracold Fermi gases", Download from arXiv:0610006 [cond-mat.str-el].
• W. Ketterle and M.W. Zwierlein, "Making, probing and understanding ultracold Fermi gases", Download from arXiv:0801.2500 [cond-mat.other].
• M. Inguscio, W. Ketterle and C. Salomon (eds.), "Ultracold Fermi Gases", IOS, Amsterdam (2008).
• C.J. Pethick and H. Smith, "Bose-Einstein condensation in Dilute Gases", CUP, Cambridge (2002).
• A. Leggett, "Bose-Einstein condensation in the alkali gases: Some fundamental concepts", Review of Modern Physics 73, 307 (2001)
  (Full text as pdf available through UB proxy server).
• L.P. Pitaevskii and S. Stringari, "Bose-Einstein condensation", Clarendon Press, Oxford (2003).
• F. Dalfovo, S. Giorgini, L. P. Pitaevskii, and S. Stringari, "Theory of Bose-Einstein condensation in trapped gases", Review of Modern Physics 71, 463 (1999).
  (Full text as pdf available through UB proxy server).
• H.T.C. Stoof, "Field theory for trapped atomic gases", Download from arXiv:9910441 [cond-mat].