The BCS-BEC Crossover in a Gas of Fermi Atoms with a Feshbach Resonance

Abstract

We discuss the BCS-BEC crossover in a degenerate Fermi gas of two hyperfine states interacting close to a Feshbach resonance. This system has quasi-molecular Bosons associated with a Feshbach resonance, and this kinds of coupled Boson-Fermion model has been recently applied to Fermi atomic gases within a mean-field approximation. We show that by including fluctuation contribution to the free energy similar to that condiered by Nozi'eres and Schmitt-Rink, the character of the superfluid phase transition continuously changes from the BCS-type to the BEC-type, as the threshold of the quasi-molecular band is lowered. In the BEC regime, the quasi-molecules become stable long-lived composite Bosons, and an effective pairing interaction mediated by the molecules causes pre-formed Cooper-pairs to also be stable even above the transition temperature Tc. The superfluid phase transition is shown to be usefully interpreted as the Bose condensation of these two kinds of Bosons. The maximum Tc is given by (in terms of the Fermi temperature T_F) Tc=0.218T_F (uniform gas) and Tc=0.518T_F (trapped gas in a harmonic potential).