Exploring Lattice Methods for Cold Fermionic Atoms

TL;DR

This paper explores lattice field theory methods to study strongly interacting cold fermionic atoms, focusing on continuum limits and phase transitions, with preliminary results indicating the ability to determine critical temperatures.

Contribution

It presents the first exploratory lattice simulations of cold fermionic atoms, demonstrating the feasibility of studying their universal behavior and phase transitions from first principles.

Findings

Simulations can locate the critical temperature.

Continuum limit of the lattice theory is achievable.

Pairing condensate behavior is characterized across temperatures.

Abstract

There has been a surge of experimental effort recently in cooling trapped fermionic atoms to quantum degeneracy. By varying an external magnetic field, interactions between atoms can be made arbitrarily strong. When the S wave scattering length becomes comparable to and larger than the interparticle spacing, standard mean field analysis breaks down. In this case the system exhibits a type of universality, and J-W. Chen and D. B. Kaplan recently showed how this system can be studied from first principles using lattice field theory. This poster presents the first results of exploratory simulations. The existence of a continuum limit is checked and the pairing condensate is studied as a function of the external source strength over a range of temperatures. Preliminary results show simulations can locate the critical temperature.