Phase Separation in Mixtures of Repulsive Fermi Gases Driven by Mass Difference

Abstract

We show that phase separation must occur in a mixture of fermions with repulsive interaction if their mass difference is sufficiently large. This phenomenon is highly dimension-dependent. Consequently, the density profiles of phase separated 3d mixtures are very different from those in 1d. Noting that the ferromagnetic transition of a spin-1/2 repulsive Fermi gas is the equal mass limit of the phase separation in mixtures, we show from the Bethe Ansatz solution that a ferromagnetic transition will take place in the scattering states when the repulsive interaction passes through resonance and becomes attractive.

4.5 pages, 2 figures, version accepted by Phys. Rev. Lett