2007/11/30 by Xia-Ji Liu, Hui Hu, P. D. Drummond +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.78.023601
published as Phys. Rev. A 78, 023601 (2008) · 9 pages and 8 figures; Published version in Phys. Rev. A
arxiv created 2008/07/09 · openalex publication_date 2008/08/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate the finite-temperature properties of an ultracold atomic Fermi gas with spin population imbalance in a highly elongated harmonic trap. Previous studies at zero temperature showed that the gas stays in an exotic spatially inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superfluid state at the trap center; while moving to the edge, the system changes into either a nonpolarized Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid (P<Pc) or a fully polarized normal gas (P>Pc), depending on the smallness of the spin polarization P, relative to a critical value Pc. In this work, we show how these two phase-separation phases evolve with increasing temperature, and thereby construct a finite-temperature phase diagram. For typical interactions, we find that the exotic FFLO phase survives below one-tenth of Fermi degeneracy temperature, which seems to be accessible in the current experiment. The density profile, equation of state, and specific heat of the polarized system have been calculated and discussed in detail. Our results are useful for the ongoing experiment at Rice University on the search for FFLO states in quasi-one-dimensional polarized Fermi gases.