Published papers

We investigate superconductivity and magnetism in the organic conductor λ-(BETS)2FexGa1-xCl4. In this material, it is known that the d-electrons on Fe-ions are ordered antiferromagnetically (TN<8.5-9 K) for 0.4

© 2019, The Author(s). We investigate superfluid phase transitions of asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature (T) and density (ρ) with a low proton fraction (Yp ≤ 0.2), which is relevant to the inner crust and outer core of neutron stars. A strong-coupling theory developed for two-component atomic Fermi gases is generalized to the four-component case, and is applied to the system of spin-1/2 neutrons and protons. The phase shifts of neutron-neutron (nn), proton-proton (pp) and neutron-proton (np) interactions up to k = 2 fm−1 are described by multi-rank separable potentials. We show that the critical temperature Tcnn of the neutron superfluidity at Yp = 0 agrees well with Monte Carlo data at low densities and takes a maximum value Tcnn= 1.68 MeV at ρ/ρ=0.14 with ρ0 = 0.17 fm−3. Also, the critical temperature Tcnn of the proton superconductivity for Yp ≤ 0.2 is substantially suppressed at low densities due to np-pairing fluctuations, and starts to dominate over Tcnn only above ρ/ρ=0.70(0.77) for Yp = 0.1(0.2), and (iii) the deuteron condensation temperature Tcd is suppressed at Yp ≤ 0.2 due to a large mismatch of the two Fermi surfaces.

© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. We theoretically investigate strong-coupling effects on specific heat at constant volume CV in a superfluid Fermi gas with a tunable interaction associated with Feshbach resonance. Including fluctuations of the superfluid order parameter within the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink, we calculate the temperature dependence of CV at the unitarity limit in the superfluid phase. We show that, in the low-temperature region, T3-behavior is shown in the temperature dependence of CV. This result indicates that the low-lying excitations are dominated by the gapless Goldstone mode, associated with the phase fluctuations of the superfluid order parameter. Since the Goldstone mode is one of the most fundamental phenomena in the Fermionic superfluidity, our results are useful for further understanding how the pairing fluctuations affect physical properties in the BCS–BEC crossover physics below the superfluid transition temperature.

We apply the formulation developed in a recent paper [Y. Ohashi and A. Griffin, Phys. Rev. A 72, 013601 (2005)] for single-particle excitations in the BCS-BEC crossover to the case of a broad Feshbach resonance. At T=0, we solve the Bogoliubov-de Gennes coupled equations taking into account a Bose condensate of bound states (molecules). In the case of a broad resonance, the density profile n(r), as well as the profile of the superfluid order parameter Δ(r), are spatially spread out to the Thomas-Fermi radius, even in the crossover region. This order parameter Δ(r) suppresses the effects of low-energy Andreev bound states on the rf tunneling current. As a result, the peak energy in the rf spectrum is found to occur at an energy equal to the superfluid order parameter Δ(r=0) at the center of the trap, in contrast to the case of a narrow resonance, and in agreement with recent measurements. The local density approximation is found to give a good approximation for the rf-tunneling spectrum. © 2005 The American Physical Society.

We investigate the single-particle properties at T=0 of a trapped superfluid gas of Fermi atoms with a Feshbach resonance. A tunable pairing interaction associated with the Feshbach resonance leads to the BCS Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover, where the character of superfluidity continuously changes from the BCS-type to a BEC of composite bosons. In this paper, we extend our previous work for a uniform superfluid Fermi gas [Y. Ohashi and A. Griffin, Phys. Rev. A 67, 063612 (2003)] to include the effect of a harmonic trap. We do not use the local density approximation (LDA), but directly solve the Bogoliubov de Gennes (BdG) coupled equations. While our explicit numerical solutions are for a weak (narrow) Feshbach resonance, we argue that the single-particle BdG excitation spectrum will exhibit the same features for a strong (broad) Feshbach resonance. Using these equations, we find self-consistent values for the spatially dependent local density n(r) as well as the composite BCS order parameter, the latter describing both the Cooper-pair and molecular condensate contributions. Using these results, we calculate the single-particle density of states in the crossover region, and from this determine the true single-particle energy gap (Eg) of the trapped Fermi superfluid. This is associated with the in-gap (or Andreev) states in the low-density region at the edge of the trap. We calculate the laser-induced tunneling current I into another hyperfine state, as measured in recent rf spectroscopy experiments. This rf spectrum gives a direct probe of the quasiparticle spectrum. We show how the high-energy part of I gives information about (r=0) at the center of the trap (which is comparable to the Fermi energy F in the crossover region). We show that I is very dependent on the spatial profile of the pair potential (r) that is used. We also emphasize that the narrow cunpaired atom" peak in the rf data gives information about Eg and the low-energy F in-gap states of a Fermi superfluid. While our calculations are limited to T=0, we use them to discuss the recent data of Chin et al. and the LDA calculations of Trm and co-workers. The LDA, while useful, can lead to an incorrect physical picture of the low-density surface region of the Fermi superfluid. © 2005 The American Physical Society.

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. We investigate single-particle excitations and strong-coupling effects in a twodimensional Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations within a Gaussian fluctuation theory, we calculate the density of states ρ(ω) near the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature TBKT. Near TBKT, we show that superfluid fluctuations induce a pseudogap in ρ(ω). The pseudogap structure is very similar to the BCS superfluid density of states, although the superfluid order parameter is absent in the present two-dimensional case. Since a twodimensional 40K Fermi gas has recently been realized, our results would contribute to the understanding of single-particle properties near the BKT instability.

We investigate the superfluid phase transition in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas with mass imbalance. In the presence of mass imbalance, it is known that the strong-coupling Gaussian fluctuation theory, as well as the ordinary non-self-consistent T-matrix theory, that have been extensively used to clarify various BCS-BEC crossover physics in the mass-balanced case, unphysically give double valued superfluid phase transition temperature T c in the crossover region. In our previous paper (R. Hanai et al., J. Low Temp. Phys. 171:389, 2013), this difficulty was shown to be eliminated by an extended T-matrix approximation (ETMA). However, it was also found that this improved theory still gives vanishing T c in the BCS regime, when the mass imbalance ratio remarkably deviates from unity. In this paper, further extending ETMA to include higher order pairing fluctuations to the fully self-consistent T-matrix level, we clarify whether the vanishing T c obtained in ETMA is an intrinsic phenomenon or an artifact of this approximation. We show that the self-consistent T-matrix theory always gives a finite T c, even in the region where ETMA predicts the absence of superfluid instability. The key to the recovery of T c is found to be a consistent treatment with respect to the Fermi surface sizes of the light mass and heavy mass components, which ETMA lacks in. Since Fermi condensates with mass imbalance have been recently discussed in various systems, such as a 40K-6Li Fermi gas, exciton-polariton condensate, as well as color superconductivity, our results would be useful in constructing a reliable strong-coupling theory to examine physical properties of these novel Fermi superfluids. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

We investigate strong-coupling corrections to single-particle excitations in the normal state of a spin-polarized unitary Fermi gas. Within the framework of an extended T-matrix approximation, we calculate the single-particle density of states, as well as the single-particle spectral weight, to show that the so-called pseudogap phenomenon gradually disappears with increasing magnitude of an effective magnetic field. In the highly spin-polarized regime, the calculated spin polarization as a function of the effective magnetic field agrees well with the recent experiment on a 6Li Fermi gas. Although this experiment has been considered to be incompatible with the existence of the pseudogap in an unpolarized Fermi gas, our result clarifies that the observed spin polarization in the highly spin-polarized regime and the pseudogap in the unpolarized limit can be explained in a consistent manner when one correctly includes effects of population imbalance on single-particle excitations. Since it is a crucial issue to clarify whether the pseudogap exists or not in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas, our results would be useful for the understanding of this strongly interacting fermion system. © 2014 American Physical Society.

We investigate magnetic properties and effects of pairing fluctuations in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-Bose-Einstein condensation (BCS-BEC) crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas. Recently, Liu and Hu, and Parish, pointed out that the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink (NSR), which has been extensively used to successfully clarify various physical properties of cold Fermi gases, unphysically gives negative spin susceptibility in the BCS-BEC crossover region. The same problem also exists in the ordinary non-self-consistent T-matrix approximation. In this paper, we clarify that this serious problem comes from incomplete treatment in term of pseudogap phenomena originating from strong pairing fluctuations, as well as effects of spin fluctuations on the spin susceptibility. Including these two key issues, we construct an extended T-matrix theory which can overcome this problem. The resulting positive spin susceptibility agrees well with the recent experiment on a 6Li Fermi gas done by Sanner. We also apply our theory to a polarized Fermi gas to examine the superfluid phase transition temperature Tc, as a function of the polarization rate. Since the spin susceptibility is an important physical quantity, especially in singlet Fermi superfluids, our results would be useful in considering how singlet pairs appear above and below Tcin the BCS-BEC crossover regime of cold Fermi gases. © 2012 American Physical Society.

We investigate single-particle properties of a one-component Fermi gas with a tunable p-wave interaction. Including pairing fluctuations associated with this anisotropic interaction within a T-matrix theory, we calculate the single-particle density of states, as well as the spectral weight, above the superfluid transition temperature T c. Starting from the weak-coupling regime, we show that the so-called pseudogap first develops in these quantities with increasing the interaction strength. However, when the interaction becomes strong to some extent, the pseudogap becomes obscure to eventually disappear in the intermediate coupling regime. In the strong-coupling regime, the excitation gap associated with the formation of tightly bound molecules again opens. This nonmonotonic interaction dependence of the excitation gap is quite different from the case of an s-wave interaction, where the pseudogap simply develops with increasing the interaction strength, which continuously changes into the molecular excitation gap. The difference between the two cases is shown to originate from the momentum dependence of the p-wave interaction, which vanishes in the low momentum limit. We also identify the pseudogap regime in the phase diagram with respect to the temperature and the p-wave interaction strength. Since the pseudogap is a precursor phenomenon of the superfluid phase transition, our results would be useful for the research toward the realization of p-wave superfluid Fermi gases. © 2012 American Physical Society.

We theoretically investigate excitation properties in the pseudogap regime of a trapped Fermi gas. Using a combined T-matrix theory with the local density approximation, we calculate strong-coupling corrections to single-particle local density of states (LDOS), as well as the single-particle local spectral weight (LSW). Starting from the superfluid phase transition temperature Tc, we clarify how the pseudogap structures in these quantities disappear with increasing the temperature. As in the case of a uniform Fermi gas, LDOS and LSW give different pseudogap temperatures T* and T ** at which the pseudogap structures in these quantities completely disappear. Determining T* and T ** over the entire BCS (Bardeen-Cooper- Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region, we identify the pseudogap regime in the phase diagram with respect to the temperature and the interaction strength. We also show that the so-called back-bending peak recently observed in the photoemission spectra by the JILA group may be explained as an effect of pseudogap phenomenon in the trap center. Since strong pairing fluctuations, spatial inhomogeneity, and finite temperatures are important keys in considering real cold Fermi gases, our results would be useful for clarifying normal-state properties of this strongly interacting Fermi system. © 2011 American Physical Society.

We study effects of strong pairing fluctuations on single-particle properties of a superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover region. Including phase and amplitude fluctuations of the order parameter within the T-matrix approximation, we calculate the superfluid density of states below the superfluid phase transition temperature Tc. We show how the pseudogap appearing in the normal phase above Tc changes into the superfluid gap over the entire BCS-BEC crossover region, as one passes through Tc. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We investigate pseudogap behaviors of an ultracold Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover above the superfluid transition temperature Tc. We calculate the single-particle density of states (DOS), as well as the spectral weight, over the entire BCS-BEC crossover region, including strong pairing fluctuations within a T-matrix approximation. We show that the pseudogap structure in DOS develops from the weak-coupling BCS region, and continuously changes into a fully gapped one in the strong-coupling BEC region. We determine the pseudogap temperature T at which the dip structure in DOS disappears, and identify the pseudogap region in the phase diagram in terms of temperatures and pairing interactions. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We investigate strong-coupling effects on normal-state properties of an ultracold Fermi gas. Within the framework of T -matrix approximation in terms of pairing fluctuations, we calculate the single-particle density of states (DOS), as well as the spectral weight, over the entire BCS-Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover region above the superfluid phase-transition temperature Tc. Starting from the weak-coupling BCS regime, we show that the so-called pseudogap develops in DOS above Tc, which becomes remarkable in the crossover region. The pseudogap structure continuously changes into a fully gapped one in the strong-coupling BEC regime, where the gap energy is directly related to the binding energy of tightly bound molecules. We determine the pseudogap temperature Tc where the dip structure in DOS vanishes. The value of Tc is shown to be very different from another characteristic temperature T□□ where a BCS-type double-peak structure disappears in the spectral weight. While one finds T□ > □□ in the BCS regime, T□ becomes higher than T□ in the crossover region and BEC regime. Including this, we determine the pseudogap region in the phase diagram of ultracold Fermi gases. Our results would be useful in the search for the pseudogap region in ultracold L6 i and K 40 Fermi gases. © 2009 The American Physical Society.

We derive an expression for the superfluid density of a uniform two-component Fermi gas through the BCS-BEC crossover in terms of the thermodynamic potential in the presence of an imposed superfluid flow. Treating the pairing fluctuations in a Gaussian approximation following the approach of Nozières and Schmitt-Rink, we use this definition of ρs to obtain an explicit result which is valid at finite temperatures and over the full BCS-BEC crossover. It is crucial that the BCS gap Δ, the chemical potential μ, and ρs all include the effect of fluctuations at the same level in a self-consistent manner. We show that the normal fluid density ρn n- ρs naturally separates into a sum of contributions from Fermi BCS quasiparticles (ρnF) and Bose collective modes (ρnB). The expression for ρnF is just Landau's formula for a BCS Fermi superfluid but now calculated over the BCS-BEC crossover. The expression for the Bose contribution ρnB is more complicated and only reduces to Landau's formula for a Bose superfluid in the extreme BEC limit, where all the fermions have formed stable Bose pairs and the Bogoliubov excitations of the associated molecular Bose condensate are undamped. In a companion paper, we present numerical calculations of ρs using an expression equivalent to the one derived in this paper, over the BCS-BEC crossover, including unitarity, and at finite temperatures. © 2006 The American Physical Society.

© 2018 The Physical Society of Japan. We theoretically investigate photoemission spectrum (PES) in a 173Yb Fermi gas with a tunable pairing interaction associated with an orbital Feshbach resonance. Including the two-channel character of this rare-earth atomic system, we examine strong-coupling effects on single-particle properties of the open and closed channels, within the framework of an T-matrix approximation in terms of fluctuations in the Cooper channel. In the BCS-BEC crossover region, PES in the closed channel is shown to exhibit non-vanishing intensity in the negative energy region, as an effect of pairing fluctuations. On the other hand, PES in the open channel exhibits a pseudogap phenomenon, as in the case of a broad magnetic Feshbach resonance discussed in 40K and 6Li Fermi gases. We also examine effects of a harmonic trap in the local density approximation, to see how the spatial inhomogeneity affects strong-coupling corrections to PES.

We theoretically investigate normal-state properties of an ultracold Fermi gas with an orbital Feshbach resonance (OFR). Recently, OFR has attracted much attention as a promising pairing mechanism to realize a superfluid Yb Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations within a T-matrix approximation, and removing effects of an experimentally inaccessible deep bound state, we evaluate strong-coupling corrections to single-particle excitations. With increasing the strength of an OFR-induced tunable pairing interaction, the open channel is shown to exhibit the pseudogap phenomenon in the BCS–BEC crossover region, as in the case of a broad magnetic Feshbach resonance (MFR) in Li and K Fermi gases. We also show that the strong pairing interaction affects the closed channel, leading to the coexistence of particle and hole branches in the single-particle spectral weight. Since the latter phenomenon cannot be observed in the conventional MFR case, it may be viewed as a characteristic strong-coupling phenomenon peculiar to the OFR case. 173 6 40

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. We theoretically investigate the specific heat at constant volume C V in the BCS(Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC(Bose-Einstein-condensation)-crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas, below the superfluid phase transition temperature T c. Within the strong-coupling framework developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink, we show that the temperature dependence of C V drastically changes as one passes through the crossover region, and is sensitive to strong fluctuations in the Cooper channel near the unitarity limit. We also compare our results to a recent experiment on a 6Li unitary Fermi gas. Since fluctuation effects are a crucial key in the BCS-BEC-crossover phenomenon, our results would be helpful in considering how the fermionic BCS superfluid changes into BEC with increasing the interaction strength, from the viewpoint of specific heat.

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. We theoretically investigate strong-coupling properties of a two-dimensional Fermi gas in the normal phase. Including pairing fluctuations within the framework of a self-consistent T-matrix approximation, we calculate the single-particle density of states (DOS) near the observed Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition temperature T BKT. We show that the pseudogap phenomenon associated with strong pairing fluctuations appears as an almost fully gapped single-particle density of states in the strong-coupling regime, indicating that amplitude fluctuations of the order parameter are almost absent and the system is dominated by phase fluctuations of the order parameter, as expected in a two-dimensional system near T BKT. On the other hand, although pairing fluctuations are enhanced by the low-dimensionality of the system, they are found to be still not strong enough to open such a full gap in the intermediate coupling (crossover) regime. In this regime, a dip structure is only seen in DOS around ω = 0, indicating that amplitude of the superfluid order parameter is also fluctuating, in addition to phase fluctuations. In theoretically determining T BKT in a two-dimensional Fermi gas, it is frequently assumed that, while phase fluctuations exist, the amplitude of the superfluid order parameter is fixed. However, our results indicate the necessity of including both amplitude and phase fluctuations of the order parameter in evaluating T BKT in the crossover region. Since the BKT phase transition has recently been reported in a two-dimensional 6Li Fermi gas, our results would be useful for the theoretical study of this observed novel Fermi superfluid and effects of strong low-dimensional pairing fluctuations.

© 2018 The Physical Society of Japan. We investigate pseudogap phenomena in a two-dimensional Fermi gas. Including pairing fluctuations within a selfconsistent T-matrix approximation, we determine the pseudogap temperature T∗ below which a dip appears in the density of states ρ(ω) around the Fermi level. Evaluating T∗, we identify the pseudogap region in the phase diagram of this system. We find that, while the observed Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature TexpBKT in a 6Li Fermi gas is in the pseudogap regime, the detailed pseudogap structure in ρ(ω) at TexpBKT still differs from a fullygapped one, indicating the importance of amplitude fluctuations in the Cooper channel there. Since the observed TexpBKT in the weak-coupling regime cannot be explained by the recent BKT theory which only includes phase fluctuations, our results may provide a hint about how to improve this BKT theory. Although ρ(ω) has not been measured in this system, we show that the assessment of our results is still possible by using the observable Tan's contact.