Delayed response of a fermion pair condensate to a modulation of the interaction strength

Departamento de Física Fundamental II, Universidad de La Laguna - La Laguna E-38204, Tenerife, Spain, EU

Corresponding author: jmplata@ull.es

Received: 22 January 2009
Accepted: 19 August 2009

Abstract

The effect of a sinusoidal modulation of the interaction strength on a fermion pair condensate is analytically studied. The system is described by a generalization of the coupled fermion-boson model that incorporates a time-dependent intermode coupling induced via a magnetic Feshbach resonance. Nontrivial effects are shown to emerge depending on the relative magnitude of the modulation period and the relaxation time of the condensate. Specifically, a nonadiabatic modulation drives the system out of thermal equilibrium: the external field induces a variation of the quasiparticle energies, and, in turn, a disequilibrium of the associated populations. The subsequent relaxation process is studied and an analytical description of the gap dynamics is obtained. Recent experimental findings are explained: the delay observed in the response to the applied field is understood as a temperature effect linked to the condensate relaxation time.