Superfluid Fermi atomic gas as a quantum simulator for the study of neutron-star equation of state

Abstract

We theoretically propose an idea to use an ultracold Fermi gas as a quantum simulator for the study of the neutron-star equation of state (EoS) in the low-density region. Our idea is different from the standard quantum simulator that heads for {\it perfect} replication of another system, such as a Hubbard model discussed in high-$T_{\mathrm{c}}$ cuprates. Instead, we use the {\it similarity} between two systems, and theoretically make up for the difference between them. That is, (1) we first show that the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières-Schmitt Rink (NSR) can quantitatively explain the recent EoS experiment on a ${}^6$Li superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-unitary limit far below the superfluid phase transition temperature $T_{\mathrm{c}}$. This region is considered to be very similar to the low density region (crust regime) of a neutron star (where a nearly unitary $s$-wave neutron superfluid is expected). (2) We then theoretically compensate the difference that, while the effective range $r_{\mathrm{eff}}$ is negligibly small in a superfluid ${}^6$Li Fermi gas, it cannot be ignored ($r_{\mathrm{eff}}=2.7$ fm) in a neutron star, by extending the NSR theory to include effects of $r_{\mathrm{eff}}$. The calculated EoS when $r_{\mathrm{eff}}=2.7$ fm is shown to agree well with the previous neutron-star EoS in the low density region predicted in nuclear physics. Our idea indicates that an ultracold atomic gas may more flexibly be used as a quantum simulator for the study of other complicated quantum many-body systems, when we use, not only the experimental high tunability, but also the recent theoretical development in this field. Since it is difficult to directly observe a neutron-star interior, our idea would provide a useful approach to the exploration for this mysterious astronomical object.

arXiv comment29 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (67)

• Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases
• Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms
• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
• Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Gases
• An accurate nucleon-nucleon potential with charge-independence breaking
• Correlated Electrons in High Temperature Superconductors
• The equation of state for nucleon matter and neutron star structure
• Theory of ultracold Fermi gases
• Observation of resonance condensation of fermionic atom pairs
• Neutron Star Structure and the Equation of State
• Condensation of Pairs of Fermionic Atoms Near a Feshbach Resonance
• Transition from a strongly interacting 1D superfluid to a Mott insulator
• Neutron Star Cooling
• Creation of ultracold molecules from a Fermi gas of atoms
• BCS-BEC Crossover: From High Temperature Superconductors to Ultracold Superfluids
• Evidence for Superfluidity in a Resonantly Interacting Fermi Gas
• Revealing the Superfluid Lambda Transition in the Universal Thermodynamics of a Unitary Fermi Gas
• Collective excitations of a degenerate gas at the BEC-BCS crossover
• Using photoemission spectroscopy to probe a strongly interacting Fermi gas
• Complete electric dipole response and the neutron skin in 208Pb
• Pairing in nuclear systems: from neutron stars to finite nuclei
• Rapid Cooling of the Neutron Star in Cassiopeia A Triggered by Neutron Superfluidity in Dense Matter
• The BCS-BEC Crossover in a Gas of Fermi Atoms with a Feshbach Resonance
• High-temperature superfluidity of fermionic atoms in optical lattices
• The Equation of State of a Low-Temperature Fermi Gas with Tunable Interactions
• Evidence for Superfluidity of Ultracold Fermions in an Optical Lattice
• Three-body forces: From cold atoms to nuclei
• Tuning p-wave interactions in an ultracold Fermi gas of atoms
• d-wave collapse and explosion of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate
• Hyperon Puzzle: Hints from Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations
• Observation of pseudogap behavior in a strongly interacting Fermi gas
• Connecting Neutron Star Observations to Three-Body Forces in Neutron Matter and to the Nuclear Symmetry Energy
• Multiplet Structure of Feshbach Resonances in non-zero partial waves
• Observation of a pairing pseudogap in a two-dimensional Fermi gas
• P-wave Feshbach resonances of ultra-cold ${}^6$Li
• Dense Matter in Compact Stars: Theoretical Developments and Observational Constraints
• Low-density neutron matter
• Crustal Entrainment and Pulsar Glitches
• Pseudogap and spectral function from superconducting fluctuations to the bosonic limit
• p-wave Feshbach molecules
• Renormalization group approach to neutron matter: quasiparticle interactions, superfluid gaps and the equation of state
• Recent Progress in Neutron Star Theory
• Resonant Fermi gases with a large effective range
• Superfluidity and collective modes in a uniform gas of Fermi atoms with a Feshbach resonance
• Critical velocity for superfluid flow across the BEC-BCS crossover
• Neutron Matter from Low to High Density
• Measurement of the Homogeneous Contact of a Unitary Fermi gas
• The equation of state of neutron matter, symmetry energy, and neutron star structure
• Goldstone mode and pair-breaking excitations in atomic Fermi superfluids
• Neutron Stars for Undergraduates
• Breakdown of Fermi liquid description for strongly interacting fermions
• Three fully polarized fermions close to a p-wave Feshbach resonance
• Fermion Superfluids of Non-Zero Orbital Angular Momentum near Resonance
• Speckle Imaging of Spin Fluctuations in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas
• Superfluid density and condensate fraction in the BCS-BEC crossover regime at finite temperatures
• Stability of the fermionic gases close to a p-wave Feshbach resonance
• Neutron skins and neutron stars
• Resonant scattering properties close to a p-wave Feshbach resonance
• Quantum Monte Carlo approaches to nuclear and atomic physics
• Equation of state of low--density neutron matter and the ${}^1{S}_0$ pairing gap
• Experimental Determination of p-wave Scattering Parameters in ultracold 6Li atoms
• Spectral monitoring of RX J1856.5-3754 with XMM-Newton. Analysis of EPIC-pn data
• Ground-state thermodynamic quantities of homogeneous spin-$1/2$ fermions from the BCS region to the unitarity limit
• Lattice Calculation of Thermal Properties of Low-Density Neutron Matter with Pionless NN Effective Field Theory
• BCS-BEC crossover with a finite-range interaction
• Strong-coupling corrections to ground-state properties of a superfluid Fermi gas

Cited by in corpus (37)

• Fermi gas throughout the BCS-BEC crossover: Comparative study of t-matrix approaches with various degrees of self-consistency
• Enhanced critical temperature, pairing fluctuation effects, and BCS-BEC crossover in a two-band Fermi gas
• Field-theoretical aspects of one-dimensional Bose and Fermi gases with contact interactions
• Accelerating the convergence of exact diagonalization with the transcorrelated method: Quantum gas in one dimension with contact interactions
• Cold Atom Quantum Simulator for Dilute Neutron Matter
• Superfluid Phase Transitions and Effects of Thermal Pairing Fluctuations in Asymmetric Nuclear Matter
• Quasiparticle properties of a single alpha particle in cold neutron matter
• Quasiparticle Effective Mass of the Three-Dimensional Fermi Liquid by Quantum Monte Carlo
• Precursor of Superfluidity in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas with Negative Effective Range
• QCD-like phase diagram with Efimov trimers and Cooper pairs in resonantly interacting SU(3) Fermi gases
• Equation of state of neutron star matter and its warm extension with an interacting hadron resonance gas
• Vortex lattice in the crossover of a Bose gas from weak coupling to unitarity
• Coexistence phase of ${}^1{S}_0$ and ${}^3{P}_2$ superfluids in neutron stars
• Role of the effective range in the density-induced BEC-BCS crossover
• Theory of strongly paired fermions with arbitrary short-range interactions
• Collisional dynamics of polaronic clouds immersed in a Fermi sea
• Feasibility of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov superfluid Fermi atomic gas
• Generalized Crossover in Interacting Fermions within the Low-Energy Expansion
• Dynamical structure factor of a fermionic supersolid on an optical lattice
• Weak-coupling to unitarity crossover in Bose-Fermi mixtures: Mixing-demixing and spontaneous symmetry breaking in trapped systems
• Cluster formation in two-component Fermi gases
• Low-Dimensional Fluctuations and Pseudogap in Gaudin-Yang Fermi Gases
• Brueckner $G$-matrix approach to two-dimensional Fermi gases with the finite-range attractive interaction
• Non-Hermitian Ferromagnetism in an Ultracold Fermi Gas
• Nonequilibrium BCS-BEC crossover and unconventional FFLO superfluid in a strongly interacting driven-dissipative Fermi gas
• Stable non-equilibrium Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in a spin-imbalanced driven-dissipative Fermi gas loaded on a three-dimensional cubic optical lattice
• Multi-body correlations in SU(3) Fermi gases
• Exploring ${}^3{P}_0$ Superfluid in Dilute Spin-Polarized Neutron Matter
• Strong-coupling effects of pairing fluctuations, and Anderson-Bogoliubov mode in neutron ${}^1$S${}_0$ superfluids in neutron stars
• Polaronic neutron in dilute alpha matter: A $p$-wave Bose polaron
• Effects of dilute neutron matter on the neutron star crust equation of state
• Faraday Waves in strongly interacting superfluids
• Finite-range effect in the two-dimensional density-induced BCS-BEC crossover
• A model study on superfluidity of a unitary Fermi gas of atoms interacting with a finite-ranged potential
• Thermal liquid-gas phase transition in a quasi-one-dimensional dipolar Fermi gas
• Equivalence of dissipative and dissipationless dynamics of interacting quantum systems with its application to the unitary Fermi gas
• The inverse-square interaction phase diagram: unitarity in the bosonic ground state