Induced interactions and the superfluid transition temperature in a three-component Fermi gas

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 103; no. 26; p. 260403
• Main Authors: Martikainen, J-P, Kinnunen, J J, Törmä, P, Pethick, C J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 31-12-2009
• Subjects: BCS THEORY; CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; CRITICAL TEMPERATURE; DIAGRAMS; DISPERSIONS; FERMI GAS; FERMIONS; INFORMATION; ISOTOPES; LIGHT NUCLEI; LITHIUM 6; LITHIUM ISOTOPES; MANY-BODY PROBLEM; MIXTURES; NUCLEI; ODD-ODD NUCLEI; PHASE DIAGRAMS; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; STABLE ISOTOPES; SUPERFLUIDITY; THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES; TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.103.260403

We study many-body contributions to the effective interaction between fermions in a three-component Fermi mixture. We find that effective interactions induced by the third component can lead to a phase diagram different from that predicted if interactions with the third component are neglected. As a result, in a confining potential a superfluid shell structure can arise even for equal populations of the components. We also find a critical temperature for the BCS transition in a 6Li mixture which can deviate strongly from the one in a weakly interacting two-component system.