Collective mode of homogeneous superfluid Fermi gases in the BEC-BCS crossover

TL;DR

This paper investigates the collective excitations in homogeneous superfluid Fermi gases across the BEC-BCS crossover at zero temperature, analyzing both linear and nonlinear regimes and their relation to fermionic excitations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the collective mode dispersion, including nonlinear effects and mode merging, across the entire BEC-BCS crossover using the dynamical BCS model.

Findings

Mode merges with fermionic continuum near unitarity and on the BEC side.

Dispersion relation remains nearly linear near unitarity up to merging.

Landau critical velocity peaks close to unitarity.

Abstract

We perform a detailed study of the collective mode across the whole BEC-BCS crossover in fermionic gases at zero temperature, covering the whole range of energy beyond the linear regime. This is done on the basis of the dynamical BCS model. We recover first the results of the linear regime in a simple form. Then specific attention is payed to the non linear part of the dispersion relation and its interplay with the continuum of single fermionic excitations. In particular we consider in detail the merging of collective mode into the continuum of single fermionic excitations. This occurs not only on the BCS side of the crossover, but also slightly beyond unitarity on the BEC side. Another remarkable feature is the very linear behaviour of the dispersion relation in the vicinity of unitarity almost up to merging with the continuum. Finally, while on the BEC side the mode is quite analogous to the Bogoliubov mode, a difference appear at high wavevectors. On the basis of our results we determine the Landau critical velocity in the BEC-BCS crossover which is found to be largest close to unitarity. Our investigation has revealed interesting qualitative features which would deserve experimental exploration as well as further theoretical studies by more sophisticated means.