Paper detail

Atom-dimer scattering amplitude for fermionic mixtures with different masses: s-wave and p-wave contributions

We study near a Feshbach resonance, as a function of the mass ratio, the fermion-dimer scattering amplitude in fermionic mixtures of two fermion species. When masses are equal the physical situation is known to be quite simple. We show that, when the mass ratio is increased, the situation becomes much more complex. For the s-wave contribution we obtain an analytical solution in the asymptotic limit of very large mass ratio. In this regime the s-wave scattering amplitude displays a large number of zeros, essentially linked to the known large value of the fermion-dimer scattering length in this regime. We find by an exact numerical calculation that a zero is still present for a mass ratio of 15. For the p-wave contribution we make our study below the mass ratio of 8.17, where a fermion-dimer bound state appears. We find that a strong p-wave resonance is present at low energy, due to a virtual bound state, in the fermion-dimer system, which is a forerunner of the real bound state. This resonance becomes prominent in the mass ratio range around the one corresponding to the $^{40}$K - $^6$Li mixtures, much studied experimentally. This resonance should affect a number of physical properties. These include the equation of state of unbalanced mixtures at very low temperature but also the equation of state of balanced mixtures at moderate or high temperature. The frequency and the damping of collective modes should also provide a convenient way to evidence this resonance. Finally it should be possible to modify the effective mass of one of the fermionic species by making use of an optical lattice. This would allow to study the strong dependence of the resonance as a function of the mass ratio of the two fermionic elements. In particular one could check if the virtual bound state is relevant for the instabilities of these mixtures.