Dynamic response of strongly correlated Fermi gases in the quantum virial expansion

Abstract

By developing a quantum virial expansion theory, we quantitatively calculate the dynamic density response function of a trapped strongly interacting Fermi gas at high temperatures near unitarity. A clear transition from atomic to molecular responses is identified in the spectra when crossing from the BCS to BEC regimes, in qualitative agreement with recent Bragg spectroscopy observations. Our virial expansion method provides a promising way to solve the challenging strong-coupling problems and is applicable to other dynamical properties of strongly correlated Fermi gases.

5 pages, 4 figures; published version in Phys. Rev. A. The quantum virial expansion of single-particle spectral function is discussed in arXiv:1003.1538 (Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 240407 (2010))