Expansion of the strongly interacting superfluid Fermi gas: symmetries and self-similar regimes

Abstract

We consider an expansion of the strongly interacting superfluid Fermi gas in a vacuum, assuming absence of the trapping potential, in the so-called unitary regime (see, for instance, \cite{pitaevskii2008superfluid}) when the chemical potential $\mu \propto {\hslash }^2{n}^{2/3}/m$ where $n$ is the density of the Bose-Einstein condensate of Cooper pairs of fermionic atoms. In low temperatures, $T\to 0$, such expansion can be described in the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE). Because of the chemical potential dependence on the density, $\sim n^{2/3}$, the GPE has additional symmetries, resulting in the existence of the virial theorem \cite% {vlasov1971averaged}, connecting the mean size of the gas cloud and its Hamiltonian. It leads asymptotically at $t\to \infty$ to the gas cloud expansion, linearly growing in time. We study such asymptotics, and reveal the perfect match between the quasi-classical self-similar solution and the asymptotic expansion of the non-interacting gas. This match is governed by the virial theorem, derived through utilizing the Talanov transformation \cite{talanov1970focusing}, which was first obtained for the stationary self-focusing of light in media with a cubic nonlinearity due to the Kerr effect. In the quasi-classical limit, the equations of motion coincide with 3D hydrodynamics for the perfect monoatomic gas with $\gamma =5/3$. Their self-similar solution describes, on the background of the gas expansion, the angular deformities of the gas shape in the framework of the Ermakov--Ray--Reid type system.

14 pages, 5 figures