Ground State Properties of an Asymmetric Hubbard Model for Unbalanced Ultracold Fermionic Quantum Gases

In order to describe unbalanced ultracold fermionic quantum gases on optical lattices in a harmonic trap, we investigate an attractive (U < 0) asymmetric (t↑ 6= t↓) Hubbard model with a Zeeman-like magnetic field. In view of the model’s spatial inhomogeneity, we focus in this paper on the solution at Hartree-Fock level. The Hartree-Fock Hamiltonian is diagonalized with particular emphasis on superfluid phases. For the special case of spin-independent hopping we analytically determine the number of solutions of the resulting self-consistency equations and the nature of the possible ground states at weak coupling. We present the phase diagram of the homogeneous system and numerical results for unbalanced Fermi-mixtures obtained within the local density approximation. In particular, we find a fascinating shell structure, involving normal and superfluid phases. For the general case of spin-dependent hopping we calculate the density of states and the possible superfluid phases in the ground state. In particular, we find a new magnetized superfluid phase. PACS. 03.75.Hh Static properties of condensates; thermodynamical, statistical, and structural properties – 39.25.+k Atom manipulation (scanning probe microscopy, laser cooling, etc.) (see also 82.37.Gk STM and AFM manipulations of a single molecule in physical chemistry and chemical physics; for atom manipulation in nanofabrication and processing, see 81.16.Ta) – 71.10.Fd Lattice fermion models (Hubbard model, etc.)