Aristeu R. P. Lima

Beyond mean-field low-lying excitations of dipolar Bose gases

We theoretically investigate various beyond mean-field effects on Bose gases at zero temperature featuring the anisotropic and long-range dipole-dipole interaction in addition to the isotropic and short-range contact interaction. Within the realm of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory, we consider static properties and low-lying excitations of both homogeneous and harmonically trapped dipolar bosonic gases. For the homogeneous system, the condensate depletion, the ground-state energy, the equation of state, and the speed of sound are discussed in detail. Making use of the local density approximation, we extend these results in order to study the properties of a dipolar Bose gas in a harmonic trap and in the regime of large particle numbers. After deriving the equations of motion for the general case of a triaxial trap, we analyze the influence of quantum fluctuations on important properties of the gas, such as the equilibrium configuration and the low-lying excitations in the case of a cylinder-symmetric trap. In addition to the monopole and quadrupole oscillation modes, we also discuss the radial quadrupole mode. We find that the latter acquires a quantum correction exclusively due to the dipole-dipole interaction. As a result, we identify the radial quadrupole as a reasonably accessible source for the signature of dipolar many-body effects and stress the enhancing character that dipolar interactions have for quantum fluctuations in the other oscillation modes.

Collective motion of polarized dipolar Fermi gases in the hydrodynamic regime

Recently, a seminal stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) experiment allowed the creation of {sup 40}K{sup 87}Rb molecules in the rovibrational ground state [K.-K. Ni et al., Science 322, 231 (2008)]. To describe such a polarized dipolar Fermi gas in the hydrodynamic regime, we work out a variational time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach. With this we calculate dynamical properties of such a system, for instance, the frequencies of the low-lying excitations and the time-of-flight expansion. We find that the dipole-dipole interaction induces anisotropic breathing oscillations in momentum space. In addition, after release from the trap, the momentum distribution becomes asymptotically isotropic, while the particle density becomes anisotropic.

Rotating Fermi gases in an anharmonic trap

Motivated by recent experiments on rotating Bose-Einstein condensates, we investigate a rotating, polarized Fermi gas trapped in an anharmonic potential. We apply a semiclassical expansion of the density of states in order to determine how the thermodynamic properties depend on the rotation frequency. The accuracy of the semiclassical approximation is tested and shown to be sufficient for describing typical experiments. At zero temperature, rotating the gas above a given frequency ΩDO leads to a ‘donut’-shaped cloud which is analogous to the hole found in two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates. The free expansion of the gas after suddenly turning off the trap is considered and characterized by the time and rotation frequency dependence of the aspect ratio. Temperature effects are also taken into account and both low- and high-temperature expansions are presented for the relevant thermodynamical quantities. In the high-temperature regime a virial theorem approach is used to study the delicate interplay between rotation and anharmonicity.

SPINOR FERMI GASES

We consider an ideal gas of fermions with total angular momentum F = 3/2 which is either harmonically trapped or homogeneous. For a fixed magnetization, we calculate the temperature dependence of thermodynamical quantities as, for instance, the heat capacity, the chemical and the magneto-chemical potential. Afterwards, the isotropic short-range contact-interaction is treated perturbatively and its influence on the ground-state energy and other relevant thermodynamical quantities is worked out. Such spinor Fermi gases are important, for example, in the context of a Cr-Cr boson-fermion mixture [1]. [1] R. Chicireanu et al., Phys. Rev. A 73, 053406 (2006).