Magnetic phase transitions in one-dimensional strongly attractive three-component ultracold fermions

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 100; no. 20; p. 200401
• Main Authors: Guan, X W, Batchelor, M T, Lee, C, Zhou, H-Q
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 23.05.2008
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.100.200401

We investigate the nature of trions, pairing, and quantum phase transitions in one-dimensional strongly attractive three-component ultracold fermions in external fields. Exact results for the ground-state energy, critical fields, magnetization and phase diagrams are obtained analytically from the Bethe ansatz solutions. Driven by Zeeman splitting, the system shows exotic phases of trions, bound pairs, a normal Fermi liquid, and four mixtures of these states. Particularly, a smooth phase transition from a trionic phase into a pairing phase occurs as the highest hyperfine level separates from the two lower energy levels. In contrast, there is a smooth phase transition from the trionic phase into a normal Fermi liquid as the lowest level separates from the two higher levels.