arXiv subjects

P. Pieri

Publications and source records attributed to P. Pieri.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Tunneling spectra of unconventional quasi-two-dimensional superconductors

Superfluid condensation can fundamentally be different from that predicted by the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory. In a broad class of low-carrier-density superconductors, such as granular aluminum, doped nitrides, and high-Tc cuprates, tunneling experiments reveal strong rather than weak coupling, as well as a conductance that does not return to that of the normal state upon approaching the critical temperature Tc. Here, we show that this behavior is in quantitative agreement with a tunneling theory that takes into account the large pairing-fluctuation effects that occur in the crossover region from weak-coupling BCS to strong-coupling Bose-Einstein condensation, provided the coherence energy scale rather than the single-particle energy gap is used to evaluate the coupling ratio. We also propose that the tendency toward strong coupling is a generic property of quasi-2D low-carrier-density superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2023

Peaks and widths of radio-frequency spectra: An analysis of the phase diagram of ultra-cold Fermi gases

We provide a comprehensive theoretical study of the radio-frequency (rf) spectra of a two-component Fermi gas with balanced populations in the normal region of the temperature-vs-coupling phase diagram. In particular, rf spectra are analyzed in terms of two characteristic peaks, which can be either distinct or overlapping. On the BEC side of the crossover, these two contributions are associated with a fermionic quasi-particle peak and a bosonic-like contribution due to pairing. On the BCS side of the crossover, the two peaks are instead associated with interactions between particles occurring, respectively, at high or low relative momenta. Through this two-peak analysis, we show how and to what extent the correlation between the widths of the rf spectra and the pair size, previously identified in the superfluid phase at low temperature, can be extended to the normal phase, as well as how the temperature-vs-coupling phase diagram of the BCS-BEC crossover can be partitioned in a number of distinct physical sectors. Several analytic results for the shape and widths of the rf spectra are also derived in appropriate temperature and coupling limits.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Spatial emergence of Off-Diagonal Long-Range Order throughout the BCS-BEC crossover

In a superfluid system, Off-Diagonal Long-Range Order (ODLRO) is expected to be exhibited in the appropriate reduced density matrices when the relevant particles (either bosons or fermion pairs) are considered to recede sufficiently far apart from each other. This concept is usually exploited to identify the value of the condensate density, without explicit concern, however, on the spatial range over which this asymptotic condition can effectively be achieved. Here, based on a diagrammatic approach that includes beyond-mean-field pairing fluctuations in the broken-symmetry phase at the level of the $t$-matrix also with the inclusion of the Gorkov-Melik-Barkhudarov (GMB) correction, we present a systematic study of the two-particle reduced density matrix for a superfluid fermionic system undergoing the BCS-BEC crossover, when the entities to recede far apart from each other evolve with continuity from largely overlapping Cooper pairs in the BCS limit to dilute composite bosons in the BEC limit. By this approach, we not only provide the coupling and temperature dependence of the condensate density at the level of our diagrammatic approach which includes the GMB correction, but we also obtain the evolution of the spatial dependence of the two-particle reduced density matrix, from a power-law at low temperature to an exponential dependence at high temperature in the superfluid phase, when the inter-particle coupling spans the BCS-BEC crossover. Our results put limitations on the minimum spatial extent of a finite-size system for which superfluid correlations can effectively be established.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Strong Fulde-Ferrell Larkin-Ovchinnikov pairing fluctuations in polarized Fermi systems

We calculate the pair susceptibility of an attractive spin-polarized Fermi gas in the normal phase, as a function of the pair momentum. Close to unitarity, we find a strong enhancement of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) pairing fluctuations over an extended region of the temperature-polarization phase diagram, which manifests itself as a pronounced peak in the pair-momentum distribution at a finite pair momentum. This peak should be amenable to experimental observation at achievable temperatures in a box-like trapping potential, as a fingerprint of FFLO pairing. Our calculations rest on a self-consistent t-matrix approach which, for the unitary balanced Fermi gas, has been validated against experimental data for several thermodynamic quantities.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Beyond-mean-field description of a trapped unitary Fermi gas with mass and population imbalance

A detailed description is given of the phase diagram for a two-component unitary Fermi gas with mass and population imbalance, for both homogeneous and trapped systems. This aims at providing quantitative benchmarks for the normal-to-superfluid phase transition of a mass-imbalanced Fermi gas in the temperature-polarization parameter space. A self-consistent t-matrix approach is adopted, which has already proven to accurately describe the thermodynamic properties of the mass and population balanced unitary Fermi gas. Our results provide a guideline for the ongoing experiments on heteronuclear Fermi mixtures.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Simulating disordered quantum systems via dense and sparse restricted Boltzmann machines

In recent years, generative artificial neural networks based on restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) have been successfully employed as accurate and flexible variational wave functions for clean quantum many-body systems. In this article we explore their use in simulations of disordered quantum spin models. The standard dense RBM with all-to-all inter-layer connectivity is not particularly appropriate for large disordered systems, since in such systems one cannot exploit translational invariance to reduce the amount of parameters to be optimized. To circumvent this problem, we implement sparse RBMs, whereby the visible spins are connected only to a subset of local hidden neurons, thus reducing the amount of parameters. We assess the performance of sparse RBMs as a function of the range of the allowed connections, and compare it with the one of dense RBMs. Benchmark results are provided for two sign-problem free Hamiltonians, namely pure and random quantum Ising chains. The RBM ansatzes are trained using the unsupervised learning scheme based on projective quantum Monte Carlo (PQMC) algorithms. We find that the sparse connectivity facilitates the training process and allows sparse RBMs to outperform the dense counterparts. Furthermore, the use of sparse RBMs as guiding functions for PQMC simulations allows us to perform PQMC simulations at a reduced computational cost, avoiding possible biases due to finite random-walker populations. We obtain unbiased predictions for the ground-state energies and the magnetization profiles with fixed boundary conditions, at the ferromagnetic quantum critical point. The magnetization profiles agree with the Fisher-de Gennes scaling relation for conformally invariant systems, including the scaling dimension predicted by the renormalization-group analysis.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2019

Pair correlations in the normal phase of an attractive Fermi gas

In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. A 99, 053617 (2019)], the total number of fermion pairs in a spin-balanced two-component Fermi gas of $^6$Li atoms was experimentally probed in the normal phase above the superfluid critical temperature, in order to investigate the sectors of pseudogap and preformed-pair in the temperature-coupling phase diagram. Here, we present a theoretical account of these experimental results in terms of an ab-initio self-consistent $t$-matrix calculation, which emphasizes the role of the pair-correlation function between opposite-spin fermions at equilibrium. Good agreement is found between the available experimental data and the theoretical results obtained with no adjustable parameter.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Self-learning projective quantum Monte Carlo simulations guided by restricted Boltzmann machines

The projective quantum Monte Carlo (PQMC) algorithms are among the most powerful computational techniques to simulate the ground state properties of quantum many-body systems. However, they are efficient only if a sufficiently accurate trial wave function is used to guide the simulation. In the standard approach, this guiding wave function is obtained in a separate simulation that performs a variational minimization. Here we show how to perform PQMC simulations guided by an adaptive wave function based on a restricted Boltzmann machine. This adaptive wave function is optimized along the PQMC simulation via unsupervised machine learning, avoiding the need of a separate variational optimization. As a byproduct, this technique provides an accurate ansatz for the ground state wave function, which is obtained by minimizing the Kullback-Leibler divergence with respect to the PQMC samples, rather than by minimizing the energy expectation value as in standard variational optimizations. The high accuracy of this self-learning PQMC technique is demonstrated for a paradigmatic sign-problem-free model, namely, the ferromagnetic quantum Ising chain, showing very precise agreement with the predictions of the Jordan-Wigner theory and of loop quantum Monte Carlo simulations performed in the low-temperature limit.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2019

Bound states in a superfluid vortex: A detailed study along the BCS-BEC crossover

The bound states that can occur in a superfluid vortex have recently called for attention owing to the capability of detecting them experimentally. However, a detailed theoretical account for the presence of these vortex bound states is still lacking, for all temperatures in the superfluid phase and couplings along the BCS-BEC crossover. Here, we fill this gap and present a systematic theoretical study based on the Bogoliubov-de~Gennes equations for the bound states that occur over the two characteristic (inner and outer) spatial ranges in which the extension of a superfluid vortex can be partitioned. It is found that the total number of bound states decreases from the BCS (weak-coupling) side of the crossover toward the intermediate-coupling region where they are still present, whereas the bound states disappear upon entering the BEC (strong-coupling) side. A scaling relation is also obtained that connects the number of bound states in the inner spatial range of the vortex to the depth and width of the vortex itself. A criterion is finally provided in terms of the local density of states, to distinguish where a given fermionic superfluid is located in the coupling-temperature phase diagram of the BCS-BEC crossover.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Fermi gas throughout the BCS-BEC crossover: Comparative study of t-matrix approaches with various degrees of self-consistency

The diagrammatic t-matrix approximation has often been adopted to describe a dilute Fermi gas. This approximation, originally considered by Galitskii for a repulsive inter-particle interaction (Galitskii-1958), has later been widely utilized for an attractive Fermi gas to describe the BCS-BEC crossover from strongly overlapping Cooper pairs in weak coupling to non-overlapping composite bosons in strong coupling. Several variants of the $t$-matrix approximation have been considered in the literature, which are distinguished by the degree of self-consistency allowed in the building blocks of the diagrammatic structure. Here, we perform a systematic and comparative study of all possible variants on the degree of self-consistency for the $t$-matrix approximation in an attractive Fermi gas, which enables us to confront their outcomes for thermodynamic and dynamical quantities on the same footing in an unbiased way. For definiteness, only the normal phase above the superfluid critical temperature is considered. The dispute that can be raised in this context, about the adequateness of introducing progressive degrees of self-consistency over and above the non-self-consistent $t$-matrix approximation for an attractive Fermi gas, parallels the recent interest in the literature on assessing the importance of various degrees of self-consistency in the context of semiconductors and insulators.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Supervised machine learning of ultracold atoms with speckle disorder

We analyze how accurately supervised machine learning techniques can predict the lowest energy levels of one-dimensional noninteracting ultracold atoms subject to the correlated disorder due to an optical speckle field. Deep neural networks with different numbers of hidden layers and neurons per layer are trained on large sets of instances of the speckle field, whose energy levels have been preventively determined via a high-order finite difference technique. The Fourier components of the speckle field are used as feature vector to represent the speckle-field instances. A comprehensive analysis of the details that determine the possible success of supervised machine learning tasks, namely the depth and the width of the neural network, the size of the training set, and the magnitude of the regularization parameter, is presented. It is found that ground state energies of previously unseen instances can be predicted with essentially arbitrary accuracy. First and second excited state energies can be predicted too, albeit with slightly lower accuracy and using more layers of hidden neurons.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Gap equation with pairing correlations beyond mean field and its equivalence to a Hugenholtz-Pines condition for fermion pairs

The equation for the gap parameter represents the main equation of the pairing theory of superconductivity. Although it is formally defined through a single-particle property, physically it reflects the pairing correlations between opposite-spin fermions. Here, we exploit this physical connection and cast the gap equation in an alternative form which explicitly highlights these two-particle correlations, by showing that it is equivalent to a Hugenholtz-Pines condition for fermion pairs. At a formal level, a direct connection is established in this way between the treatment of the condensate fraction in condensate systems of fermions and bosons. At a practical level, the use of this alternative form of the gap equation is expected to make easier the inclusion of pairing fluctuations beyond mean field. As a proof-of-concept of the new method, we apply the modified form of the gap equation to the long-pending problem about the inclusion of the Gorkov-Melik-Barkhudarov correction across the whole BCS-BEC crossover, from the BCS limit of strongly overlapping Cooper pairs to the BEC limit of dilute composite bosons, and for all temperatures in the superfluid phase. Our numerical calculations yield excellent agreement with the recently determined experimental values of the gap parameter for an ultra-cold Fermi gas in the intermediate regime between BCS and BEC, as well as with the available quantum Monte Carlo data in the same regime.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Entanglement between pairing and screening in the Gorkov-Melik-Barkhudarov correction to the critical temperature throughout the BCS-BEC crossover

The theoretical description of the critical temperature Tc of a Fermi superfluid dates back to the work by Gor'kov and Melik-Barkhudarov (GMB), who addressed it for a weakly-coupled (dilute) superfluid in the BCS (weak-coupling) limit of the BCS-BEC crossover. The point made by GMB was that particle-particle (pairing) excitations, which are responsible for superfluidity to occur below Tc, and particle-hole excitations, which give rise to screening also in a normal system, get effectively disentangled from each other in the BCS limit, thus yielding a reduction by a factor 2.2 of the value of Tc obtained when neglecting screening effects. Subsequent work on this topic, aimed at extending the original GMB argument away from the BCS limit with diagrammatic methods, has kept this disentangling between pairing and screening throughout the BCS-BEC crossover, without realising that the conditions for it to be valid are soon violated away from the BCS limit. Here, we reconsider this problem from a more general perspective and argue that pairing and screening are intrinsically entangled with each other along the whole BCS-BEC crossover but for the BCS limit considered by GMB. We perform a detailed numerical calculation of the GMB diagrammatic contribution extended to the whole BCS-BEC crossover, where the full wave-vector and frequency dependence occurring in the repeated in-medium two-particle scattering is duly taken into account. Our numerical calculations are tested against analytic results available in both the BCS and BEC limits, and the contribution of the GMB diagrammatic term to the scattering length of composite bosons in the BEC limit is highlighted. We calculate Tc throughout the BCS-BEC crossover and find that it agrees quite well with Quantum Monte Carlo calculations and experimental data available in the unitarity regime.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Luttinger theorem and imbalanced Fermi systems

The proof of the Luttinger theorem, which was originally given for a normal Fermi liquid with equal spin populations formally described by the exact many-body theory at zero temperature, is here extended to an approximate theory given in terms of a "conserving" approximation also with spin imbalanced populations. The need for this extended proof, whose underlying assumptions are here spelled out in detail, stems from the recent interest in superfluid trapped Fermi atoms with attractive inter-particle interaction, for which the difference between two spin populations can be made large enough that superfluidity is destroyed and the system remains normal even at zero temperature. In this context, we will demonstrate the validity of the Luttinger theorem separately for the two spin populations for any "$\Phi$-derivable" approximation, and illustrate it in particular for the self-consistent $t$-matrix approximation.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Vortex arrays in neutral trapped Fermi gases throughout the BCS-BEC crossover

Vortex arrays in type-II superconductors admit the translational symmetry of an infinite system. There are cases, however, like ultra-cold trapped Fermi gases and the crust of neutron stars, where finite-size effects make it quite more complex to account for the geometrical arrangement of vortices. Here, we self-consistently generate these arrays of vortices at zero and finite temperature through a microscopic description of the non-homogeneous superfluid based on a differential equation for the local order parameter, obtained by coarse graining the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations. In this way, the strength of the inter-particle interaction is varied along the BCS-BEC crossover, from largely overlapping Cooper pairs in the BCS limit to dilute composite bosons in the BEC limit. Detailed comparison with two landmark experiments on ultra-cold Fermi gases, aimed at revealing the presence of the superfluid phase, brings out several features that makes them relevant for other systems in nature as well.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Monte Carlo study of the indirect Pauli exclusion effect in Bose-Fermi mixtures

We study the momentum distributions of a three-dimensional resonant Bose-Fermi mixture in the molecular limit at zero temperature. For concentration of the bosons with respect to the fermions less or equal to one, each boson is bound to a fermion and the system is composed of fermionic molecules plus excess fermions. Not only the bosonic condensate fraction goes to zero, signaling a quantum phase transition towards a normal phase, but a finite region of low momenta is depleted, depending on the concentration. This phenomenon is named indirect Pauli exclusion effect and is demonstrated via Fixed-Node Diffusion Monte Carlo simulations and T-matrix calculations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Pairing effects in the normal phase of a two-dimensional Fermi gas

In a recent experiment [M. Feld et al., Nature 480, 75 (2011); B. Froehlich et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109,130403 (2012)], a pairing gap was detected in a two-dimensional (2D) Fermi gas with attractive interaction at temperatures where superfluidity does not occur. The question remains open as to whether this gap is a pseudogap phenomenon or is due to a molecular state. In this paper, by using a t-matrix approach, we reproduce quite well the experimental data for a 2D Fermi gas, and set the boundary between the pseudogap and molecular regimes. We also show that pseudogap phenomena occurring in 2D and 3D can be related through a variable spanning the BCS-BEC crossover in a universal way.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Bose-Fermi mixtures in the molecular limit

We consider a Bose-Fermi mixture in the molecular limit of the attractive interaction between fermions and bosons. For a boson density smaller or equal to the fermion density, we show analytically how a T-matrix approach for the constituent bosons and fermions recovers the expected physical limit of a Fermi-Fermi mixture of molecules and atoms. In this limit, we derive simple expressions for the self-energies, the momentum distribution function, and the chemical potentials. By extending these equations to a trapped system, we determine how to tailor the experimental parameters of a Bose-Fermi mixture in order to enhance the 'indirect Pauli exclusion effect' on the boson momentum distribution function. For the homogeneous system, we present finally a Diffusion Monte Carlo simulation which confirms the occurrence of such a peculiar effect.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗