Low-dimensional pairing fluctuations and pseudogapped photoemission spectrum in a trapped two-dimensional Fermi gas

Abstract

We investigate strong-coupling properties of a trapped two-dimensional normal Fermi gas. Within the framework of a combined $T$-matrix theory with the local density approximation, we calculate the local density of states, as well as the photoemission spectrum, to see how two-dimensional pairing fluctuations affect these single-particle quantities. In the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region, we show that the local density of states exhibits a dip structure in the trap center, which is more remarkable than the three-dimensional case. This pseudogap phenomenon is found to naturally lead to a double peak structure in the photoemission spectrum. The peak-to-peak energy of the spectrum at p=0 agrees well with the recent experiment on a two-dimensional 40K Fermi gas [M. Feld, et al., Nature 480, 75 (2011)]. Since pairing fluctuations are sensitive to the dimensionality of a system, our results would be useful for the study of many-body physics in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of a two-dimensional Fermi gas.