Geometry-Driven Suppression of Fermionic Pairing on a Spherical Surface

Abstract

We investigate the ground-state properties of a two-component attractive Fermi gas confined to a spherical surface, demonstrating how curvature and finite-size effects lead to qualitatively different behavior compared to the planar limit. In the strongly attractive regime, the system forms a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of tightly bound dimers, yielding a gap and chemical potential that approach flat-space results with leading-order geometric corrections. However, as the attraction decreases, the system crosses over into a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) regime where the Cooper pair size becomes constrained by the sphere radius, producing pronounced deviations from flat-space behavior. We identify strong shell effects at magic particle numbers set by the single-particle spectrum, revealing the geometry-driven suppression of fermionic pairing at weak interactions. Our results highlight a fundamental interplay among geometry, quantum statistics, and interactions, motivating future experiments with shell-trapped ultracold fermions and inspiring geometry-controlled condensed matter devices.