Characteristic length scale and energy of a vortex line in a dilute, superfluid Fermi gas

Abstract

We calculate the characteristic length scale of a vortex line in a dilute, superfluid gas of fermionic atoms, and find that it is in general smaller, and has a weaker density dependence than the BCS coherence length. Taking this into account, we find the energy of a vortex line to be larger than has previously been estimated. As a consequence, the critical frequency for formation of vortices in trapped fermion gases can be significantly larger than earlier calculations have suggested.