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Phys. Rev. A 74, 013614 (2006) [6 pages]

Phase diagram of a cold polarized Fermi gas

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D. T. Son1 and M. A. Stephanov2
1Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1550, USA
2Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois 60607-7059, USA

Received 5 August 2005; published 17 July 2006

We propose a phase diagram for a cold polarized atomic Fermi gas with zero-range interaction. We identify four main phases in the plane of density and polarization: the superfluid phase, the normal phase, the gapless superfluid phase, and the modulated phase. We argue that there exists a Lifshitz point at the junction of the normal, the gapless superfluid, and the modulated phases, and a splitting point where the superfluid, the gapless superfluid, and the modulated phases meet. We show that the physics near the splitting point is universal and derive an effective field theory describing it. We also show that subregions with one and two Fermi surfaces exist within the normal and the gapless superfluid phases.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.74.013614
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.74.013614
PACS:
03.75.Ss