Published papers

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. We investigate strong-coupling properties of a unitary Fermi gas consisting of two different species with different masses. Including pairing fluctuations within the self-consistent T-matrix approximation, we calculate the single-particle density of states in the normal state. We show that the pseudogap phenomenon, which is characterized by a dip structure in the density of states around ω 0, appears more remarkably in the light mass component than in the heavy mass component. As a result, the pseudogap temperature, which is determined as the temperature at which the pseudogap disappears in the density of states, is higher in the former than in the latter. We also find that this different pseudogap temperatures lead to the existence of two kinds of pseudogap regions. That is, one is the ordinary pseudogap regime where the pseudogap appears in both the component, and the other case is that the light mass component only exhibits the pseudogap phenomenon. As the origin of these component- dependent pseudogap phenomena, we point out the importance of different Fermi temperatures between the two components. Since the formation of hetero-Cooper pairs and their condensation are expected in various systems, such as a 6Li-40K Fermi gas mixture, an exciton (polariton) gas, as well as color superconductivity, our results would be useful for the understanding of strong-coupling properties of these novel Fermi condensates.

We present a Green's-function formalism for an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) satisfying the two required conditions: (i) the infrared-divergent longitudinal susceptibility with respect to the BEC order parameter, and (ii) the Nepomnyashchii-Nepomnyashchii identity stating the vanishing off-diagonal self-energy in the low-energy and low-momentum limit. These conditions cannot be described by the ordinary mean-field Bogoliubov theory, the many-body T-matrix theory, or the random-phase approximation with the vertex correction. In this paper, we show that these required conditions can be satisfied, when we divide many-body corrections into singular and nonsingular parts, and separately treat them as different self-energy corrections. The resulting Green's function may be viewed as an extension of the Popov's hydrodynamic theory to the region at finite temperatures. Our results would be useful in constructing a consistent theory of BECs satisfying various required conditions, beyond the mean-field level. © 2014 American Physical Society.

We investigate single-particle properties of a mass-imbalanced Fermi gas in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region. In the presence of mass imbalance, we point out that the ordinary T-matrix approximation, which has been extensively used to clarify various BCS-BEC crossover physics in the mass-balanced case, unphysically gives a double-valued solution in terms of the superfluid phase transition temperature Tc in the crossover region. To overcome this serious problem, we include higher order strong-coupling corrections beyond the T-matrix level. Using this extended T-matrix theory, we calculate single-particle excitations in the normal state above Tc. The so-called pseudogap phenomena originating from pairing fluctuations are shown to be different between the light-mass component and heavy-mass component, which becomes more remarkable at higher temperatures. Since Fermi condensates with hetero-Cooper pairs have recently been discussed in various fields, such as exciton (polariton) condensates as well as color superconductivity, our results would be useful for the further development of Fermi superfluid physics, beyond the conventional superfluid state with homo-Cooper pairs. © 2013 American Physical Society.

We investigate the tunneling properties of collective excitations through a domain wall in the ferromagnetic phase of a spin-1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Within the mean-field theory at T=0, we show that the transverse spin wave undergoes perfect reflection in the low-energy limit. This reflection property differs considerably from that of a domain wall in a Heisenberg ferromagnet where spin-wave excitations exhibit perfect transmission at arbitrary energy. When the Bogoliubov mode is scattered from this domain wall soliton, the transmission and reflection coefficients exhibit pronounced nonmonotonicity. In particular, we find perfect reflection of the Bogoliubov mode at energies where bound states appear. This is in stark contrast to the perfect transmission of the Bogoliubov mode with arbitrary energy through a dark soliton in a scalar Bose-Einstein condensate. © 2012 American Physical Society.

We theoretically investigate the introduction of magnetic impurities into a superfluid Fermi gas. In the presence of a population imbalance (NN, where Nσ is the number of Fermi atoms with pseudospin σ), we show that nonmagnetic potential scatterers embedded in the system are magnetized in the sense that some of the excess spin- atoms are localized around them. They destroy the superfluid order parameter around them, as in the case of the magnetic impurity effect discussed in the superconductivity literature. This pair-breaking effect naturally leads to localized excited states below the superfluid excitation gap. To confirm our idea in a simple manner, we consider an attractive Fermi-Hubbard model within the mean-field theory at T=0. We determine consistent superfluid properties around a nonmagnetic impurity, such as the superfluid order parameter, local population imbalance, as well as the single-particle density of states, in the presence of a population imbalance. Since competition between superconductivity and magnetism is one of the most fundamental problems in condensed-matter physics, our results would be useful for the study of this important issue in cold Fermi gases. © 2011 American Physical Society.

We discuss tunneling properties of Bogoliubov excitations through a potential barrier. We find that the quasi-particle current carried by Bogoliubov excitations is remarkably enhanced near the potential barrier at low incident energies. This explains the increase of the transmission probability of Bogoliubov phonons in the low energy region. In addition, taking into account of the backreaction of Bogoliubov excitations on Bose condensates, we show that the quasi-particle current twists the phase of the condensate wavefunction, leading to a Josephson supercurrent through the barrier. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.

We investigate the superfluid phase transition in a gas of Fermi atoms loaded on a three-dimensional optical lattice. When the lattice potential is strong, this system can be well described by an attractive Hubbard model. In this model, we calculate the superfluid phase transition temperature Tc, including both superfluid and (spin and charge) density fluctuations within the self-consistent t -matrix theory and fluctuation exchange approximation, respectively. Since we treat these fluctuations in a consistent manner, our theory satisfies the required particle-hole symmetry over the entire BCS-Bose-Einstein-condensation (BEC) crossover region. We show that charge density fluctuations compete against superfluid fluctuations near the half-filling, leading to the suppression of Tc. As a result, the maximum Tc is obtained away from the half-filling. Since the strong density fluctuations originate from the nesting property of the Fermi surface at the half-filling (which is absent in a uniform gas with no lattice potential), our results would be useful in considering lattice effects on strong-coupling superfluidity. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

We investigate effects of optical lattice potential in one- and two-dimensional two-component trapped Fermi gases with population imbalances. Using the exact diagonalization and the density matrix renormalization group methods complementarily, we calculate the atom-density profile from the ground state many-body wave function as a function of attractive interaction strength for various population imbalances. The numerical results reveal that although a phase separation between the superfluid core and the shell cloud of excess atoms occurs as observed in experiments without the optical lattice, the population imbalance generally remains in the core region in contrast to the nonlattice cases. The essence of the numerical results in a strong attractive regime can be explained by an effective model composed of Cooper pairs and excess major fermions. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

We investigate single-particle excitations at T = 0 in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of a superfluid Fermi gas. We solve the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations in a trap, including a tunable pairing interaction associated with a Feshbach resonance. We show that the single-particle energy gap Eg is dominated by the lowest-energy Andreev bound state localized at the surface of the gas, which is much smaller than the superfluid order parameter over(Δ, ̃) (r = 0) at the center of the trap. We also calculate the rf-tunneling current spectrum IF(ω). In a broad Feshbach resonance, the peak energy in IF(ω) is shown to give, not Eg, but over(Δ, ̃) (r = 0). In a narrow resonance, significant spectral weight coming from the low-energy Andreev states hides the appearance of the peak in IF(ω) at ω ≃ over(Δ, ̃) (r = 0). Our results for a broad resonance is in good agreement with the recent rf-tunneling measurement in a superfluid 6Li. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. We theoretically investigate strong-coupling properties of an ultracold Fermi gas with an orbital Feshbach resonance (OFR). Including tunable pairing interaction associated with an OFR within the framework of the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink (NSR), we examine the occupation of the closed channel. We show that, although the importance of the closed channel is characteristic of the system with an OFR, the occupation number of the closed channel is found to actually be very small at the superfluid phase transition temperature T c, in the whole BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region, when we use the scattering parameters for an ultracold 173Yb Fermi gas. The occupation of the closed channel increases with increasing the temperature above T c, which is more remarkable for a stronger pairing interaction. We also present a prescription to remove effects of an experimentally inaccessible deep bound state from the NSR formalism, which we meet when we theoretically deal with a 173Yb Fermi gas with an OFR.

©2016 The Physical Society of Japan. We investigate the specific heat CV at constant volume in the normal state of a p-wave interacting Fermi gas. Including p-wave pairing fluctuations within the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink, we show that, in the weak-coupling side, CV exhibits a dip-hump behavior as a function of the temperature. While the dip is associated with the pseudogap phenomenon near Tc, the hump structure is found to come from the suppression of Fermi quasiparticle scattering into a p-wave molecular state in the Fermi degenerate regime. Since the latter phenomenon does not occur in the ordinary s-wave interacting Fermi gas, it may be viewed as a characteristic phenomenon associated with a p-wave pairing interaction.

We investigate strong pairing fluctuations and effects of a harmonic trap in the superfluid phase of an ultracold Fermi gas. Including amplitude and phase fluctuations of the inhomogeneous superfluid order parameter Δ(r) in a trap within a combined T-matrix theory with the local density approximation, we examine local properties of single-particle excitations and a thermodynamic quantity in the BCS-BEC crossover region. Below the superfluid phase transition temperature Tc, we show that inhomogeneous pairing fluctuations lead to a shell structure of the gas cloud in which the spatial region where the ordinary BCS-type superfluid density of states appears surrounded by the region where the pseudogap associated with strong pairing fluctuations dominates single-particle excitations. The former spatial region enlarges to eventually cover the whole gas cloud far below Tc. We also examine how this shell structure affects the photoemission spectrum, as well as the local pressure. Since a cold Fermi gas is always trapped in a harmonic potential, our results would be useful for the study of strong-coupling superfluid physics, including this realistic situation. © 2012 American Physical Society.

We compare many-body theories describing fluctuation corrections to the mean-field theory in a weakly interacting Bose-condensed gas. Using a generalized random-phase approximation, we include both density fluctuations and fluctuations in the particle-particle scattering channel in a consistent manner. We also separately examine effects of the fluctuations within the framework of the random-phase approximation. Effects of fluctuations in the particle-particle scattering channel are also separately examined by using the many-body T-matrix approximation. We assess these approximations with respect to the transition temperature Tc, the order of phase transition, as well as the so-called Nepomnyashchii-Nepomnyashchii identity, which states the vanishing off-diagonal self-energy in the low-energy and low-momentum limit. Since the construction of a consistent theory for interacting bosons which satisfies various required conditions is a long-standing problem in cold atom physics, our results would be useful for this important challenge. © 2013 American Physical Society.

The ferromagnetic spin wave (FSW) in classical Heisenberg chain exhibits the perfect transmission in the long-wavelength limit in the transmission-reflection problem with an inhomogeneity of exchange integral. In the presence of local magnetic field, on the other hand, FSW undergoes the perfect reflection in the long-wavelength limit. This difference in the long-wavelength limit is attributed to the symmetry property of the scatterers; it is crucial whether the potential preserves or breaks the spin rotation symmetry. Our result implies that the anomalous tunneling (i.e., perfect transmission in the low-energy limit) found both in scalar and spinor BECs is not specific to gapless modes in superfluids but is a common property shared with generic Nambu-Goldstone modes in the presence of a symmetry-preserving potential scatterer.

We investigate tunneling properties of collective spin-wave excitations in the polar state of a spin-1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Within the mean-field theory at T = 0, we show that when the condensate is in the critical supercurrent state, the spin wave mode exhibits perfect transmission through a nonmagnetic potential barrier in the low energy limit, unless the strength of a spin-independent interaction co equals that of a spin-dependent interaction co Such an anomalous tunneling behavior is absent in the case of a magnetic barrier. We also clarify a scaling law of the transmission probability as a function of the mode energy. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

We investigate tunneling properties of collective modes in the polar phase of a spin-1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). This spinor BEC state has two kinds of gapless modes (i.e., Bogoliubov and spin-wave). Within the framework of mean-field theory at T=0, we show that these Goldstone modes exhibit perfect transmission in the low-energy limit. Their anomalous tunneling behavior still holds in the presence of superflow, except in the critical current state. In the critical current state, while the tunneling of Bogoliubov mode is accompanied by finite reflection, the spin wave still exhibits perfect transmission, unless the strengths of spin-dependent and spin-independent interactions take the same value. We discuss the relation between perfect transmission of a spin wave and underlying superfluidity through a comparison of wave functions of the spin wave and the condensate. © 2011 American Physical Society.

We investigate tunneling properties of Bogoliubov phonons in a Bose-Einstein condensate. We find the anomalous enhancement of the quasiparticle current Jq carried by Bogoliubov phonons near a potential barrier, due to the supply of the excess current from the condensate. This effect leads to the increase of quasiparticle transmission probability in the low energy region found by Kovrizhin We also show that the quasiparticle current twists the phase of the condensate wave function across the barrier, leading to a finite Josephson supercurrent Js through the barrier. This induced supercurrent flows in the opposite direction to the quasiparticle current so as to cancel out the enhancement of Jq and conserve the total current J= Jq + Js. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

© 2017 The Physical Society of Japan. We theoretically propose an idea to realize a p-wave superfluid Fermi gas. To overcome the experimental difficulty that a p-wave pairing interaction to form p-wave Cooper pairs damages the system before the condensation growth, we first prepare a p-wave pair amplitude (Φ p ) in a spin-orbit coupled s-wave superfluid Fermi gas, without any p-wave interaction. Then, by suddenly changing the s-wave interaction with a p-wave one (U p ) by using a Feshbach resonance, we reach the p-wave superfluid phase with the p-wave superfluid order parameter being symbolically written as Δ p ∼ U p Φ p . In this letter, we assess this scenario within the framework of a time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory. Our results would contribute to the study toward the realization of unconventional pairing states in an ultracold Fermi gas.

An extension of the Ambegaokar-Baratoff relation to a superconductor- insulator-superconductor (SIS) Josephson junction with multiple tunneling channels is derived. Applying the resultant relation to a SIS Josephson junction formed by an iron-based (five-band) and a single-band Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) type superconductors, a theoretical bound of the Josephson critical current (I c ) multiplied by the resistance of the junction (R n ) is given. We reveal that such a bound is useful for identifying the pairing symmetry of iron-pnictide superconductors. One finds that if a measured value of I c R n is smaller than the bound then the symmetry is ±s wave, and otherwise s wave without any sign changes. In addition, we stress that temperature dependence of I c R n is sensitive to the difference of the gap functions from the BCS type gap formula in the above heterojunction. © 2010 The American Physical Society.

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. We theoretically investigate a Bose-condensed exciton gas out of equilibrium. Within the framework of the combined BCS-Leggett strong-coupling theory with the non-equilibrium Keldysh formalism, we show how the Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of excitons is suppressed to eventually disappear, when the system is in the non-equilibrium steady state. The supply of electrons and holes from the bath is shown to induce quasi-particle excitations, leading to the partial occupation of the upper branch of Bogoliubov single-particle excitation spectrum. We also discuss how this quasi-particle induction is related to the suppression of exciton BEC, as well as the stability of the steady state.