Cold Fermionic Atoms in Two-Dimensional Traps -- Pairing versus Hund's Rule

TL;DR

This paper investigates the microscopic properties of few cold fermionic atoms in 2D traps, revealing shell structures, Hund's rule effects, and pairing phenomena through numerical diagonalization.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of pairing and Hund's rule effects in 2D confined fermionic atoms, highlighting new insights into their internal structure and interactions.

Findings

Strong shell structure observed under repulsive interactions

Hund's rule dominates at mid-shell configurations

Odd-even oscillations due to pairing in attractive interactions

Abstract

The microscopic properties of few interacting cold fermionic atoms confined in a two-dimensional (2D) harmonic trap are studied by numerical diagonalization. For repulsive interactions, a strong shell structure dominates, with Hund's rule acting at its extreme for the mid-shell configurations. In the attractive case, odd-even oscillations due to pairing occur simultaneously with deformations in the internal structure of the ground states, as seen from pair correlation functions.