Ideal Fermi Gas

We talk about basics for an ideal Fermi gas. In this section we simply our situation to the spin-polarized fermi gasses (single component). Unlike bosons, due to the Pauli exclusion principle, the lowest $s-wave$ interaction is suppressed in the single-component Fermi gasses. Therefore degenerate fermi gasses eventually provided a better ideal gas system.

Fermi-Dirac distribution

The particles in an atom trap are isolated from the surroundings, thus the atom number $N$ and total energy content $E_{\rm {tot}}$ of the atomic cloud is fixed. However, it is convenient to consider the system to be in contact with a reservoir, with which it can exchange particles and energy (grand canonical ensemble). For non-interacting particles with single-particle energies $\epsilon _{i}$, the average occupation of state $i$ is

$f(\epsilon _{i},\mu ,T)={\frac {1}{e^{(\epsilon _{i}-\mu )/kT}+1}}\,.$

These is the Fermi-Dirac distribution. For a fixed number of particles $N$ one chooses the chemical potential $\mu$ such that $N=\sum _{i}f(\epsilon _{i},\mu ,T)$.

Fermi Energy

A very direct consequence of the Fermi - Dirac distribution is the existence of Fermi energy $E_{F}$, defined as the energy of the highest occupied state of the non-interacting Fermi gas at $T=0$. In this case, the FD distribution takes the simple form, we have the simplified Fermi-Dirac distribution

Failed to parse (unknown function "\begin{array}"): {\displaystyle f(\vec{r},\vec{p},T) = \frac{1}{e^{(\frac{\vec{p}^2}{2m} + V(\vec{r}) - \mu)/k_B T} + 1} \stackrel{T \rightarrow 0} \rightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 1, & \hbox{$\frac{\vec{p}^2}{2m} + V(\vec{r}) < \mu$} \\ 0, & \hbox{$\frac{\vec{p}^2}{2m} + V(\vec{r}) > \mu$} \\ \end{array} \right. }

The (globally) largest momentum is $p_{F}\equiv \hbar k_{F}\equiv {\sqrt {2mE_{F}}}$, the Fermi momentum. The $E_{F}$ can be readily calculated from atom number conservation.

Density distributions

We assume that the thermal energy $kT\equiv 1/\beta$ is much larger than the quantum mechanical level spacings $\hbar \omega _{x,y,z}$ (Thomas-Fermi approximation). In this case, the occupation of a phase space cell $\left\{{\vec {r}},{\vec {p}}\right\}$ (which is the phase-space density times $h^3$) is given by

$f({\vec {r}},{\vec {p}})={\frac {1}{e^{({\frac {{\vec {p}}^{2}}{2m}}+V({\vec {r}})-\mu )/kT}+1}}\,.$

The density distribution of the thermal gas is

$n_{th}({\vec {r}})=-{\frac {1}{\lambda _{dB}^{3}}}\,{\rm {Li}}_{3/2}\left(-e^{\beta \left(\mu -V({\vec {r}})\right)}\right)\,.$

where ${\sqrt {\frac {2\pi \hbar ^{2}}{mk_{B}T}}}$ is the de Broglie wavelength. ${\rm {Li}}_{n}(z)$ is the $n^{th}$-order Polylogarithm, defined as

${\rm {Li}}_{n}(z)\;\equiv \;{\frac {1}{\pi ^{n}}}\int {\rm {d}}^{2n}r{\frac {1}{e^{{\vec {r}}^{2}}/z-1}}\;{\stackrel {n\neq 0}{=}}\;{\frac {1}{\Gamma (n)}}\int _{0}^{\infty }{\rm {d}}q{\frac {q^{n-1}}{e^{q}/z-1}}\,.$

where the first integral is over $2n$ dimensions, ${\vec {r}}$ is the radius vector in Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle 2n} dimensions, Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n} is any positive half-integer or zero and Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \Gamma(n)} is the Gamma-function. The Polylogarithm can be expressed as a sum ${\rm {Li}}_{n}(z)=\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {z^{k}}{k^{n}}}$ which is often used as the definition of the Polylogarithm. This expression is valid for all complex numbers Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n} and Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle z} where Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle |z|\le 1} . The definition given in the text is valid for all Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle z\le l} .

Special cases: ${\rm {Li}}_{0}(z)={\frac {1}{1/z-1}}$, Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle {\rm Li_1}(z) = -\ln(1-z)} . Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle f(\vec{r},\vec{p})} can be written as Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle -{\rm Li}_0(- \exp[\beta(\mu-\frac{\vec{p}^2}{2m} - V(\vec{r}))])} . When integrating density distributions to obtain column densities, a useful formula is:

$\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }dx\;{\rm {Li}}_{n}(z\,e^{-x^{2}})={\sqrt {\pi }}\;{\rm {Li}}_{n+1/2}(z)\,.$

Limiting values: Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle {\rm Li}_n(z) \stackrel{z \ll 1}{\rightarrow} z} and Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle -{\rm Li}_n(-z) \stackrel{z\rightarrow\infty}{\rightarrow} \frac{1}{\Gamma(n+1)}\; \ln^n(z)} .}. Note that expression for Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n} is correct for any potential Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle V(\vec{r})} . The constraint on the number of thermal particles is

$N_{th}=\int {{\text{d}}r}\;n_{th}({\vec {r}})\,.$

Thermodynamic properties

Thermodynamic properties can be calculated as the ensemble average given the FD distribution.

Trapped Fermi Gas

Local Density Approximation

A very important approximation for trapped fermi gas is the Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle Local\ Density\ Approximation} . It suggests that any trapping potentials, if varying slowly enough, can be taken in account as a shift in the local fermi energy

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle E_F(\vec{r}) = E_F - V(\vec{r}) \,. } .

Then, locally, the gas can be treated as a free gas at position Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \vec{r}} in the trap. With its Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_F(\vec{r}) \equiv \hbar k_F(\vec{r}) \equiv \sqrt{2 m \epsilon_F(\vec{r})} \equiv \hbar (6\pi^2 n_F(\vec{r}))^{1/3}} with the local Fermi energy $\epsilon _{F}({\vec {r}})$. The value of Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle E_F} is fixed by the number of fermions Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle N} , occupying the $N$ lowest energy states of the trap.

Free space Fermi gas

As a simple demonstration of all the definition defined above, we firstly demonstrate the case for a $3D$ fermi gas with $V({\vec {r}})=0$.

At$T=0$, the distribution can be simplified as

Failed to parse (unknown function "\begin{array}"): {\displaystyle f(\vec{r},\vec{p},T) = \frac{1}{e^{(\frac{\vec{p}^2}{2m} - \mu)/k_B T} + 1} \stackrel{T \rightarrow 0} \rightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 1, & \hbox{$\frac{\vec{p}^2}{2m} < E_F$} \\ 0, & \hbox{$\frac{\vec{p}^2}{2m} > E_F$} \\ \end{array} \right. }

File:Fermi distribution.png

Measurement of the density profile for a degenerate fermi gas in a 2D box potential. Mukherjee et. al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 123401

We therefore readity obtain the important result:

${\begin{array}{ll}E_{F}&={\frac {\hbar ^{2}}{2m}}\left({\frac {3\pi ^{2}N}{V}}\right)^{2/3}\\E_{tot}&={\frac {3}{5}}NE_{F}\end{array}}$

The density in this case is homogeneous across the whole volume with

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n \sim k^3_F }

The fluctuation of density Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \delta n\rightarrow 0 } when Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T\rightarrow 0} . This specific characters for fermions suggest that zero temperature degenerate fermi gas can be treated as a crystallined structure with interatiomic distance on the order of $1/k_{F}$.

Harmonically Trapped Fermi gas

A more realistic example in the experiments is the harmonically trapped Fermi gas. Applying these distributions to particles confined in a harmonic trap, with trapping potential

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle V(\vec{r}) = \frac{1}{2} m (\omega_x^2 x^2 + \omega_y^2 y^2 + \omega_z^2 z^2) \,. }

For a harmonic potential, we obtain

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle N_{th} = - \left(\frac{k_B T}{\hbar \bar{\omega}}\right)^3 {\rm Li}_3(-\,e^{\beta\mu}) }

with Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \bar{\omega} = (\omega_x \omega_y \omega_z)^{1/3}} the geometric mean of the trapping frequencies.

In the classical limit at high temperature, we recover the Maxwell-Boltzmann result of a gaussian distribution,

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n_{cl}(\vec{r}) = \frac{N}{\pi^{3/2} \sigma_x \sigma_y \sigma_z} e^{- \sum_i x_i^2/\sigma_{x_i}^2} \qquad {\rm with} \; \sigma_{x,y,z}^2 = \frac{2 k_B T}{m \omega_{x,y,z}^2} \,. }

The regime of quantum degeneracy is reached when $\lambda _{dB}\approx n^{-1/3}$, or when the temperature Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T \approx T_{\rm deg}} . The degeneracy temperature Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T_{\rm deg} = \frac{\hbar^2}{2m k_B} n^{2/3}} is around or below one Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \mu \rm K} for typical experimental conditions.

For {\bf bosons}, it is at this point that the ground state becomes macroscopically occupied and the condensate forms. For {\bf fermions}, the occupation of available phase space cells smoothly approaches unity without any sudden transition:

Accordingly, also the density profile changes smoothly from its gaussian form at high temperatures to its zero temperature shape:

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{array} n_F(\vec{r}) &=& \Intp{p} \, f(\vec{r},\vec{p}) \stackrel{T\rightarrow 0}{\rightarrow} \int_{\left|\vec{p}\right|< \sqrt{2m(\mu-V(\vec{r}))}} \frac{{\rm d}^3\vec{p}}{(2\pi\hbar)^3}\nonumber\\ &=& \frac{1}{6\pi^2} \left(\frac{2m}{\hbar^2}\right)^{3/2} \left(\mu - V(\vec{r})\right)^{3/2}. \end{array}}

In terms of local Fermi energy, For a harmonic trap, we obtain

Failed to parse (unknown function "\begin{array}"): {\displaystyle \begin{array} N &=& \Int{r} \; n_F(\vec{r}) = \frac{1}{6} \left(\frac{E_F}{\hbar \bar{\omega}}\right)^3\nonumber\\ \Rightarrow E_F &=& \hbar \bar{\omega} (6 N)^{1/3} \end{array}}

and for the zero-temperature profile

Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{array} n_F(\vec{r}) &=& \frac{8}{\pi^2} \frac{N}{R_{Fx} R_{Fy} R_{Fz}} \; \left[\max \left(1 - \sum_i \frac{x_i^2}{R_{Fi}^2},0\right)\right]^{3/2} \end{array}}

with the Fermi radii Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_{F{x,y,z}} = \sqrt{\frac{2 E_F}{m\omega_{x,y,z}^2}}} . The profile of the degenerate Fermi gas has a rather flat top compared to the gaussian profile of a thermal cloud, as the occupancy of available phase space cells saturates at unity.

At finite Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T \lesssim T_F} , we can understand the shape of the cloud by comparing Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle k T} with the local Fermi energy $\epsilon _{F}({\vec {r}})$.

For the outer regions in the trap where Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle k T \gg \epsilon_F(\vec{r})} , the gas shows a classical (Boltzmann) density distribution Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n(\vec{r}) \propto e^{-\beta V(\vec{r})}} . In the inner part of the cloud where Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle k_B T \ll \epsilon_F(\vec{r})} , the density is of the zero-temperature form Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n(\vec{r}) \propto (E_F - V(\vec{r}))^{3/2}} .

The Polylogarithm smoothly interpolates between the two regimes. We notice here the difficulty of thermometry for very cold Fermi clouds: Temperature only affects the far wings of the density distribution where the signal to noise ratio is poor. While for thermal clouds above $T_{F}$, the size of the cloud is a direct measure of temperature, for cold Fermi clouds one needs to extract the temperature from the shape of the distribution's wings. Note that the validity of the above derivation required the Fermi energy Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle E_F} to be much larger than the level spacing Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hbar \omega_{x,y,z}} . For example, in very elongated traps, and for low atom numbers, one can have a situation where this condition is violated in the tightly confining radial dimensions.