A recent experiment with Fermi superfluids in
one-dimensional (1D) optical lattices has revealed that
superfluidity is particularly robust at unitarity [1].
Motivated by this experiment, we study the effects of a 1D
optical lattice on the thermodynamic properties [2] and on
the critical velocity for the Landau (energetic) instability
[3] of superfluid unitary Fermi gases. We show that, the
inclusion of a 1D optical lattice, by favoring the formation
of molecular configurations and by inducing a band structure
in the quasiparticle spectrum, has profound consequences on
the thermodynamic quantities, the density profile, and the
collective oscillations of the unitary Fermi gas [2].
Regarding the Landau critical velocity, we have derived an
analytical expression, which is applicable for both bosonic
and fermionic superfluids in hydrodynamic regime flowing
through any shape of the external potential [3]. We also
find that the behavior of the critical velocity in the
presence of a periodic potential is very different from that
of a single barrier [3]. In the last part of this
presentation, our recent results about the loop structure of
the energy band of superfluid Fermi gases are also given.
References:
[1] D. E. Miller et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 070402 (2007).
[2] GW, Orso, Dalfovo, Pitaevskii, and Stringari, Phys. Rev.
A 78, 063619 (2008).
[3] GW, Dalfovo, Piazza, Pitaevskii, and Stringari, Phys.
Rev. A 80, 053602 (2009).