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Title

Mean-field study of itinerant ferromagnetism in trapped ultracold Fermi gases: beyond the local-density approximation

Author(s)

Dong, H.;  Hu, Hui;  Liu, Xia-Ji;  Drummond, Peter D.

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the itinerant ferromagnetic transition of a spherically trapped ultracold Fermi gas with spin imbalance under strongly repulsive interatomic interactions. Our study is based on a self-consistent solution of the Hartree-Fock mean-field equations beyond the widely used local-density approximation. We demonstrate that, while the local-density approximation holds in the paramagnetic phase, after the ferromagnetic transition it leads to a quantitative discrepancy in various thermodynamic quantities even with large atom numbers. We determine the position of the phase transition by monitoring the shape change of the free-energy curve with increasing the polarization at various interaction strengths.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences. Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Source

Physical Review A: Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Vol. 82, no. 1 (Jul 2010), paper no. 013627

Publication year

2010

FOR Code(s)

0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics;  0204 Condensed Matter Physics;  0205 Optical Physics

Keyword(s)

Itinerant ferromagnetism;  Local-density approximation;  Ultracold Fermi gases

Publisher

American Physical Society

ISSN

1050-2947

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.013627

Copyright

Copyright © 2010 The American Physical Society. Published version of the paper reproduced here with the kind permission of the publisher for non-commercial purposes only.

Research Projects

Ultracold atomic Fermi gases in the strongly interacting regime: a new frontier of quantum many-body physics, Australian Research Council grant number DP0984522
Imbalanced superfluidity: the quantum mystery that defies solution, Australian Research Project grant number DP0984637

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