Many-body studies on atomic quantum systems

Abstract

This thesis presents a set of studies on atomic systems where quantum effects are particularly relevant. These studies have been developed by applying a variety of tools from many-body physics. First of all, we have studied the prospects for the existence of a superfluid transition in an ultracold gas of fermionic atoms, by generalizing the BCS theory of superconductivity to the case when the two species that pair have different densities and the ground state may spontaneously break one or more symmetries. In a second part, we have studied the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate whose spin degree of freedom is free to evolve inside a quasi-onedimensional optical trap. We have used a mean-field formulation to address both the zero temperature case and the finite temperature one. Finally, we have performed a careful study of the ground state and the line tension of two-dimensional systems of helium-4. First, we have used Monte Carlo techniques, then with a Density Functional built on-purpose. Comments are welcome! KEYWORDS: Cold gases, Pairing, Spinor condensate, Helium, Two dimensions