Collective modes and ballistic expansion of a Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover

Abstract

We evaluate the frequencies of collective modes and the anisotropic expansion rate of a harmonically trapped Fermi superfluid at varying coupling strengths across a Feshbach resonance driving a BCS-BEC crossover. The equations of motion for the superfluid are obtained from a microscopic mean-field expression for the compressibility and are solved within a scaling ansatz. Our results confirm non-monotonic behavior in the crossover region and are in quantitative agreement with current measurements of the transverse breathing mode by Kinast {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 92}, 150402 (2004)] and of the axial breathing mode by Bartenstein {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 92}, 203201 (2004)].

4 pages and 4 figures; proof version with more extensive discussions on the comparison between theoretical results and experimental findings; to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. (Nov. 2004)