First and second sound of a unitary Fermi gas in highly oblate harmonic traps

Abstract

We theoretically investigate first and second sound modes of a unitary Fermi gas trapped in a highly oblate harmonic trap at finite temperatures. Following the idea by Stringari and co-workers (2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.150402 105 http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.150402 ), we argue that these modes can be described by the simplified two-dimensional two-fluid hydrodynamic equations. Two possible schemes—sound wave propagation and breathing mode excitation—are considered. We calculate the sound wave velocities and discretized sound mode frequencies, as a function of temperature. We find that in both schemes, the coupling between first and second sound modes is large enough to induce significant density fluctuations, suggesting that second sound can be directly observed by measuring in situ density profiles. The frequency of the second sound breathing mode is found to be highly sensitive to the superfluid density.

Keywords

• BCS–BEC crossover
• ultracold Fermi gases
• two-fluid hydrodynamics
• superfluidity
• 67.85.Lm
• 03.75.Ss