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Dynamics in Two

Complex Dimensions

J. Smillie Department of Mathematics, Malott Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. E-mail: smillie@math.cornell.edu

Abstract

We describe results on the dynamics of polynomial diffeomorphisms of $`𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}`$ and draw connections with the dynamics of polynomial maps of $`𝐂`$ and the dynamics of polynomial diffeomorphisms of $`𝐑^\mathrm{𝟐}`$ such as the Hénon family.

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 37F99.

Keywords and Phrases: Hénon diffeomorphism, Julia set, Critical point.

1. Introduction

The subject of this article is part of the larger subject area of higher dimensional complex dynamics. This larger area includes the dynamical study of holomorphic maps of complex projective space, automorphisms of $`K3`$ surfaces, birational maps, automorphisms of $`𝐂^𝐧`$ and higher dimensional Newton’s method. Our particular topic of research is polynomial automorphisms of $`𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}`$. This area is particularly interesting because of its connections to some fundamental questions of dynamical systems via two real dimensional dynamics and because of its connection to some powerful techniques via one dimensional complex dynamics. I will begin by describing some of these connections. The reader is encouraged to consult  for a more thorough discussion of the historical background summarized here.

Over one hundred years after Poincaré observed chaotic behavior in the dynamics of surface diffeomorphisms the problem of creating a comprehensive theory of the dynamics of diffeomorphisms remains unsolved. Though the objective is to create a theory that would apply to diffeomorphisms in any dimension the focus remains on the two dimensional case. On the one hand the chaotic behavior which makes these problems challenging first appears for diffeomorphisms in dimension two, on the other hand there is a sense that if the tools can be developed to solve the problem in dimension two then the higher dimensional problem will be approachable. There are reasons to believe that if the tools can be developed to thoroughly analyze one specific interesting family of diffeomorphisms then one would be in a good position to attack the general problem. If we were to suggest a family to play the role of a “test case” there is one particular family which stands out. This is the family of diffeomorphisms of $`𝐑^\mathrm{𝟐}`$ introduced by the French astronomer Hénon:

$$f_{a,b}(x,y)=(abyx^2,x).$$

The parameter $`b`$ is the Jacobian determinant of $`f_{a,b}`$. When $`b0`$ these maps are diffeomorphisms. When $`b=0`$ then $`f_{a,0}`$ is a map with a one dimension range and the behavior of $`f_{a,0}`$ is essentially that of the quadratic unimodal map $`f_a(x)=ax^2`$.

In singling out the Hénon family we are following a well established tradition. This family has appeared often both in the physics and mathematics literature. It has been studied theoretically and numerically.

Virtually all interesting dynamical behavior which is known to occur for two dimensional diffeomorphisms is known to occur in this family. Hénon’s original question involved an apparent strange attractor, and this is the first family in which the existence of strange attractors was proved (). For certain parameter values this family exhibits hyperbolic behavior such as the Smale horseshoe (). For other parameters it exhibits persistently nonhyperbolic behavior ().

There is also a great deal that is not understood about the Hénon family. Despite the fact that many different types of dynamic behavior occur it is not known whether the union of these behaviors accounts for a large set of parameter values. There are also open questions about how the complexity of behavior varies with the parameters. When $`a0`$ the behavior is non-chaotic. When $`a0`$, $`f_{a,b}`$ exhibits a horseshoe, a model for chaotic behavior. What happens for intermediate values? How is chaos created? (cf )

Another reason for looking at the Hénon family is its connection with the one dimensional family of unimodal maps $`f_a`$. One dimensional diffeomorphisms exhibit only regular behavior but one dimensional maps exhibit a wealth of chaotic behavior. In contrast to the situation for the Hénon family, the most fundamental questions for the unimodal family have been answered. In the language of  the family $`f_a`$ provides a “qualitatively solvable model of chaos” which is to say that there is a good understanding of attractors, strange and otherwise, for large sets of parameters and there is a good understanding of the transition to chaos.

The quadratic family is distinguished in the family of unimodal maps because it has a natural extension to the complex numbers. In the family $`f_a(x)=ax^2`$ both $`x`$ and $`a`$ can be taken to be complex. The use of complex methods stands out as a reason for the success of the analysis of the quadratic family and unimodal maps more generally. While there are important results about unimodal maps that do not use complex techniques, these techniques do play a central role in the monotonicity results and in the analysis of attractors for the quadratic family.

Because the Hénon family is also given by polynomial equations it also has a natural complex extension. My first introduction to the importance of the complex Hénon family was through lectures of J. H. Hubbard in the mid 1980’s. Another contributor who brought new ideas to the subject was N. Sibony. Hubbard and his co-authors as well as Fornaess and Sibony and many others have continued to make fundamental contributions to this area and it is not possible to do justice to all of this work in the space provided. I will focus here on work that was carried out jointly with E. Bedford and, in some cases, M. Lyubich over the past 15 years.

2. Basic definitions in one and two variables

The fundamental paper of Friedland and Milnor  shows that a natural class of holomorphic diffeomorphisms to consider is the family of polynomial diffeomorphisms of $`𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}`$. This class contains the Hénon family and the tools that we use to analyze the Hénon family work equally well for all diffeomorphisms in this class. In studying polynomial maps of $`𝐂`$ one focuses on those of degree greater than one because these exhibit chaotic behavior. One way of quantifying chaotic behavior is through the topological entropy, $`h_{top}(f)`$. In one complex dimension the entropy is the logarithm of the degree so the distinction between degree one and higher degree is the distinction between entropy zero and positive entropy.

For polynomial diffeomorphisms in dimension two the algebraic degree is not a conjugacy invariant and hence not a dynamical invariant. One way to create a conjugacy invariant is to define the following “dynamical degree”:

$$d=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}(\mathrm{algebraic}\mathrm{degree}f^n)^{\frac{1}{n}}.$$

It is again true that the topological entropy of a complex diffeomorphism is the logarithm of its dynamical degree, so dynamical degree seems to be the appropriate two dimensional analog of degree. The Hénon diffeomorphisms have the property that the algebraic degree of $`f^n`$ is $`2^n`$ so the dynamical degree is two. Friedland and Milnor show that any diffeomorphism with dynamical degree one is conjugate to an affine or elementary diffeomorphism. They also show that a diffeomorphism with dynamical degree greater than one is, like the Hénon diffeomorphism, conjugate to an explicit diffeomorphism whose actual degree is equal to its dynamical degree. When we refer to the degree of a diffeomorphism we will mean the dynamical degree. We make the standing assumption that all of our polynomial diffeomorphisms have degree greater than one.

Let us review some standard definitions for polynomial maps. Let $`f:𝐂𝐂`$ be a polynomial map with degree $`d>1`$. The set $`K`$ is the set of points with bounded orbits. The Julia set, $`J`$ is the boundary of $`K`$. In dimension one all recurrent behavior is contained in $`K`$. All chaotic recurrent behavior is contained in $`J`$. The ease with which this set can be defined leaves one unprepared for the range of intricate behavior that it exhibits.

Let $`f:𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}`$ be a polynomial diffeomorphism with dynamical degree $`d>1`$. The set $`K^+`$ is the set of points with bounded forward orbits. Following Hubbard we take the set $`K^{}`$ to be the set of points with bounded backward orbits. The sets $`J^\pm `$ are defined as the boundaries of $`K^\pm `$. The set $`J`$ is defined to be $`J^+J^{}`$. In dimension two all chaotic recurrent behavior is contained in $`J`$. Thus $`J`$ seems to be a good analog of the one dimensional Julia set. (In fact there is an alternative analog of $`J`$ but we will not deal with that here.)

Let $`p`$ be a periodic saddle point of period $`n`$ in $`𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}`$. Let $`W_p^u`$ denote the unstable manifold of $`p`$. This is the set of points that converge to $`p`$ under iteration of $`f^1`$. Since this definition involves $`f^1`$ it is less clear what the one variable analog should be. Let us examine the situation more carefully. The set $`W_p^u`$ is holomorphically equivalent to $`𝐂`$. We can find a parameterization $`\varphi _p:𝐂W_p^u`$ which satisfies the functional equation $`f^n(\varphi _p(z))=\lambda z`$ where $`\lambda `$ is the expanding eigenvalue of $`Df_p^n`$. Now if $`p`$ is a periodic point in $`𝐂`$ then the functional equation still makes sense. A function $`\varphi _p`$ which satisfies this equation is called a linearizing coordinate and this is a good analog of the parameterized unstable manifold in two dimensions.

Hubbard made the key observation that this construction gives a natural way to draw pictures of the sets $`W_p^uK^+`$ in two variables and a natural way to compare them to the pictures of $`K`$ in one variable. In both cases we identify a region in $`𝐂`$ with the computer screen and choose a color scheme where the color for a pixel corresponding to $`z`$ is related to the rate of escape of $`\varphi _p(z)`$. The general convention is that points that do not escape (those points in $`\varphi _p^1(K)`$) are colored black. (See \[http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dynamics/\].)

There is an abstract construction which makes it easier to compare invertible systems such as diffeomorphisms with non-invertible systems. Given a non-invertible system such as $`f:𝐂𝐂`$ there is a closely related invertible system called the natural extension. Let us denote this by $`\widehat{f}:\widehat{𝐂}\widehat{𝐂}`$. The points in $`\widehat{𝐂}`$ consist of sequences $`(\mathrm{}z_1,z_0,z_1\mathrm{})`$ such that $`f(z_j)=z_{j+1}`$. The map $`\widehat{f}`$ acts by shifting such a sequence to the left.

The natural extension gives us a way of justifying the analogy between linearizing coordinates and unstable manifolds. Corresponding to a periodic saddle point $`p`$ in $`𝐂`$ there is a unique periodic point $`\widehat{p}`$ in $`\widehat{𝐂}`$. Since $`\widehat{f}`$ is invertible we can make sense of the unstable manifold $`W_{\widehat{p}}^u`$ and the linearizing coordinate can be used to parameterize this unstable manifold.

Though $`\widehat{𝐂}`$ contains “leaves” such as $`W_{\widehat{p}}^u`$ it is a mistake to think of $`\widehat{𝐂}`$ as a lamination. When $`f`$ is expanding $`\widehat{𝐂}`$ is a lamination near the Julia set but the more complicated the dynamics of $`f`$, the more degenerate this structure becomes. This complexity arises from recurrent behavior of the critical point for $`f`$. This suggests a certain connection between regularity of unstable manifolds in two dimensions and recurrence of critical points in one dimension that we will return to later.

Since points in $`\widehat{𝐂}`$ have bounded backward orbits, we should think of $`\widehat{𝐂}`$ as an analog of $`J^{}`$. Let $`f_a`$ be an expanding one dimensional map and consider a diffeomorphism $`f_{a^{},b}`$ with $`b`$ small and $`a^{}`$ close to $`a`$. Hubbard and Oberste-Vorth () show that $`J^{}`$ is topologically conjugate to the corresponding $`\widehat{𝐂}`$. When the one dimensional map $`f`$ is not expanding the relation between $`\widehat{𝐂}`$ and any particular $`J^{}`$ should be viewed as metaphorical rather than literal.

3. Potential theory and Pluri-potential theory

A standard construction in potential theory associates to nice sets a measure $`\mu `$ called the harmonic measure or equilibrium measure. The harmonic measure associated to the Julia set turns out to be a measure of dynamical interest. The potential theory construction starts with the Green function. The Green function of $`K`$ has a dynamical description:

$$G(p)=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{d^n}\mathrm{log}^+|f^n(p)|.$$

The Green function is non-negative and equal to zero precisely on the set $`K`$. The harmonic measure $`\mu `$ is obtained by applying the Laplacian to $`G`$. The support of $`\mu `$ is the boundary of $`K`$ which is the set $`J`$. The connection between polynomial maps and potential theory first appears in the work of Brolin (). It reappears in a paper of Manning () and is nicely summarized in .

The harmonic measure has connections to entropy and to the connectivity of $`J`$. These connections do not play a major role in the one dimensional theory because entropy and connectivity can be approached more directly. In the two dimensional theory these connections are much more important.

The entropy of the measure $`\mu `$, $`h(\mu )`$, happens to be $`\mathrm{log}d`$ which is equal to the topological entropy of the map. The topological entropy dominates the measure theoretic entropy of any invariant measure. A measure for which equality holds is called a measure of maximal entropy. For polynomial maps of $`𝐂`$ the measure $`\mu `$ can be characterized as the unique measure of maximal entropy.

The dimension of a measure $`\nu `$, $`dim_H(\nu )`$, is the minimum of the Hausdorff dimensions of subsets of full $`\nu `$ measure. The dimension of the harmonic measure of a planar set is always less than or equal to one. If the set is connected then the dimension is one. For Julia sets the converse is true: the dimension of the harmonic measure is one if and only if $`J`$ is connected.

The Lyapunov exponent, $`\lambda (\mu )`$, of $`f`$ with respect to an ergodic measure measures the rate of growth of tangent vectors under iteration (for a set of full $`\mu `$ measure). The Lyapunov exponent is related to Hausdorff dimension of the measure by the formula:

$$dim_H(\mu )=h(\mu )/\lambda (\mu ).$$

Since $`h(\mu )`$ is $`\mathrm{log}d`$, $`\lambda (\mu )=\mathrm{log}d`$ if and only if $`J`$ is connected. We will return to this in the next section.

In dimension two we have two rate of escape functions:

$$G^\pm (p)=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{d^n}\mathrm{log}^+|f^{\pm n}(p)|.$$

Potential theory in one variable centers on the behavior of the Laplacian. The Laplacian is not holomorphically invariant in two variables but it has a close relative which is. This is the operator $`dd^c`$ which takes real valued functions to real two forms. The $`d`$ that appears here is just the exterior derivative and the $`d^c`$ is a version of the exterior derivative twisted by using the complex structure. In one variable we have:

$$dd^cg=(\mathrm{}g)dxdy.$$

Not only is $`dd^c`$ holomorphically natural but it is well defined on complex manifolds of any dimension. Of course, in the two variable context as in the one variable, the functions to which these operators are applied are not smooth and the result has to be interpreted appropriately. The theory connected with the operator $`dd^c`$ is referred to as pluripotential theory. It was an observation of Sibony that the methods of pluripotential can be profitably applied to the complex Hénon diffeomorphisms.

Define $`\mu ^\pm =\frac{1}{2\pi }dd^cG^\pm `$. These are dynamically significant currents supported on $`J^\pm `$. Define $`\mu =\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$. This measure $`\mu `$ is the analog of the harmonic measure in one dimension. The following result suggest that “$`\mu `$” defined above is the dynamical analog as well as the pluripotential theoretic analog.

Theorem 3.1 () The measure $`\mu `$ is the unique measure of maximal entropy.

4. Connectivity and critical points

We want to consider the way in which the dynamical behavior of a polynomial diffeomorphism such as $`f_{a,b}`$ depends on the parameter. Looking at pictures of $`W_p^uK^+`$ shows that there are indeed many things that do change. If we want to focus on one fundamental property we might start by looking at connectivity. In one variable the connectivity of the Julia set of $`f_a`$ defines the Mandelbrot set which is the fundamental object of study for quadratic maps. In two variables there are several notions of connectivity that we could consider. The following has proved useful. We say that $`f`$ is stably/unstably connected if $`W_p^{s/u}K^{/+}`$ has no compact components. We can ask about the relation between stable connectivity, unstable connectivity and the connectivity of $`J`$. A priori the property of being stably/unstably connected depends on the saddle point $`p`$. In fact we show that these properties are independent of $`p`$.

Let us look at the situation in one variable. The basic result about connectivity is the following.

Theorem 4.1 (Fatou) Let $`f`$ be a polynomial map of $`𝐂`$. Then $`J`$ is connected if and only if every critical point of $`f`$ has a bounded orbit.

The following formula makes a connection between the Lyapunov exponent and critical points ():

$$\lambda (\mu )=\mathrm{log}d+\underset{\{c_j:f^{}(c_j)=0\}}{}G(c_j).$$

The function $`G`$ is non-negative and zero precisely on the set $`K`$. In light of the theorem above we see that $`J`$ is connected if and only if the Lyapunov exponent is $`\mathrm{log}d`$. This proves an assertion made in Section 1 about the relation between the Lyapunov exponents of $`\mu `$ and the connectivity of $`J`$.

In two variables there are two Lyapunov exponents, $`\lambda ^\pm (\mu )`$, of $`f`$ with respect to harmonic measure. The following result establishes the connection between stable/unstable connectivity and these exponents.

Theorem 4.2 () We have $`\lambda ^+(\mu )\mathrm{log}d`$; and $`\lambda ^+(\mu )=\mathrm{log}d`$ if and only if $`f`$ is unstably connected. Similarly $`\lambda ^{}(\mu )\mathrm{log}d`$; and $`\lambda ^{}(\mu )=\mathrm{log}d`$ if and only if $`f`$ is stably connected.

It is clear from this result that neither exponent is zero. Pesin theory shows that stable and unstable manifolds exist for $`\mu `$ almost every point. Let $`𝒞^u`$ be the set of critical points of the restriction of $`G^+`$ to these unstable manifolds. We define $`𝒞^s`$ in the corresponding way.

Theorem 4.3 () The diffeomorphism $`f`$ is unstably connected if and only if $`𝒞^u=\mathrm{}`$. The diffeomorphism $`f`$ is stably connected if and only if $`𝒞^s=\mathrm{}`$.

In  we prove an analog of the critical point formula where the role of the critical point is played by critical points is played by $`𝒞^u`$. This formula leads to proofs of the two theorems above.

The following result makes the connection between stable and unstable connectivity and the connectivity of $`J`$. Note that in this two variable situation the Jacobian of $`f`$ enters the picture.

Theorem 4.4 () If $`|detDf|<1`$ then $`f`$ is never stably connected. In this case $`J`$ is connected if and only if $`f`$ is unstably connected. If $`|detDf|=1`$ then $`f`$ is stably connected iff $`f`$ is unstably connected iff $`J`$ is connected.

(The case $`|detDf|>1`$ is analogous to the case $`|detDf|<1`$.) The Jacobian enters the proof through the relation: $`\lambda ^+(\mu )+\lambda ^{}(\mu )=\mathrm{log}|detDf|`$. We see for example that $`|detDf|<1`$ implies that $`\lambda ^{}(\mu )<\mathrm{log}d`$ which, by Theorem 4.2 implies that $`f`$ is unstably disconnected.

Using this result J. H. Hubbard and K. Papadantonakis have developed a computer program that uses the set $`𝒞^u`$ to draw pictures of the connectivity locus in parameter space. (See \[http://www.math.cornell.edu/~dynamics/\].)

5. The boundary of the horseshoe locus

Hyperbolic behavior, as exhibited by the horseshoe, is structurally stable. This implies that the set of $`(a,b)`$ for which $`f_{a,b}`$ exhibits a horseshoe is open. Let us call this set the horseshoe locus. Standard techniques from dynamical systems can be used to analyze the dynamical behavior inside the horseshoe locus. These techniques break down on the boundary of the horseshoe locus however. By contrast complex techniques from ,  and  can be applied on the closure of the horseshoe locus. Thus the analysis of this boundary provides a setting for demonstrating that these techniques derived from complex analysis are not without interest in the real setting.

Let us look at the one dimensional case $`f_a`$. We say that $`f_a`$ exhibits a horseshoe if $`f_a|J_a`$ is expanding and topologically conjugate to the one sided two shift. The horseshoe locus here is the set $`a>2`$. The boundary of the horseshoe locus is $`a=2`$. The map $`f_2`$ is the well known example of Ulam and von Neumann. The failure of expansion is demonstrated by the fact that the critical point $`0`$ is in the Julia set, $`[2,2]`$. In fact the critical point maps to the fixed point $`2`$ after two iterates.

The following result describes the failure of hyperbolicity on the boundary of the horseshoe locus for Hénon diffeomorphisms. Note that the property of eventually mapping to the fixed point $`p`$ in dimension one corresponds to belonging to $`W_p^s`$ in dimension two.

Theorem 5.1 (). For $`f_{a,b}`$ on the boundary of the horseshoe locus there are fixed points $`p`$ and $`q`$ so that $`W_p^s`$ and $`W_q^u`$ have a quadratic tangency. When $`b>0`$ we have $`p=q`$. When $`b<0`$, $`pq`$.

The next result gives additional information about the precise nature of the dynamics of maps on the boundary of the horseshoe locus:

Theorem 5.2 (Bedford-Smillie) For any $`(a,b)`$ in the boundary of the horseshoe locus the restriction of $`f_{a,b}`$ to its non-wandering set is conjugate to the full two-shift with precisely two orbits identified. Given $`(a,b)`$ and $`(a^{},b^{})`$ in the boundary of the horseshoe locus, the restrictions of $`f_{a,b}`$ and $`f_{a^{},b^{}}`$ to their non-wandering sets are conjugate if and only if $`b`$ and $`b^{}`$ have the same sign.

There are many techniques which work only for $`b`$ small. Note that that the result above applies for all values of $`b`$ including the volume preserving case $`b=\pm 1`$.

We can ask how the dynamics of $`f_{a,b}`$ for $`(a,b)`$ on the boundary of the horseshoe regions $`b>0`$ and $`b<0`$ compares with the dynamics of $`f_2`$ which corresponds to the boundary of the horseshoe region when $`b=0`$. The sets $`J_{a,b}`$ for $`b0`$ are totally disconnected while the set $`J_2`$ is connected. In particular the inverse limit system $`\widehat{J}_2`$ is not conjugate to either system with $`b0`$. This is an example where the insights gained from looking at the inverse limit system need to be interpreted cautiously.

I will touch on the techniques used in the proofs of these theorems. Our fundamental approach to proving these results was to exploit the relationship between the real mapping $`f_{a,b}:𝐑^\mathrm{𝟐}𝐑^2`$ and its complex extension $`f_{a,b}:𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}𝐂^2`$. In passing from $`𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}`$ to $`𝐑^\mathrm{𝟐}`$ something may be lost. The first question to ask is how much chaotic behavior do we lose? One way to measure this is through the topological entropy function. If we denote $`f_{a,b}:𝐑^\mathrm{𝟐}𝐑^2`$ by $`f_𝐑`$ and $`f_{a,b}:𝐂^\mathrm{𝟐}𝐂^2`$ by $`f_𝐂`$ then we have

$$h_{top}(f_𝐑)h_{top}(f_𝐂)=\mathrm{log}2.$$

If we want to study the real Hénon diffeomorphisms most closely connected to their complex extensions we should focus our attention on those $`f`$ with $`h_{top}(f_𝐑)=\mathrm{log}2`$. We say that these examples have maximal entropy. This is an interesting set to look at. The horseshoe locus is contained in the maximal entropy locus but the maximal entropy locus is larger than the horseshoe locus. The horseshoe locus is open, and the maximal entropy locus is closed. In particular the maximal entropy locus contains the boundary of the horseshoe locus.

For maximal entropy diffeomorphisms the relation between the real and complex dynamics is as close as one could want:

Theorem 5.3 () $`f_𝐑`$ has maximal entropy if and only if $`J`$ is contained in $`𝐑^\mathrm{𝟐}`$.

This theorem is a consequence of the fact that $`\mu `$ is the unique measure of maximal entropy and the fact that the support of $`\mu `$ is contained in $`J`$. The fact that the real and complex dynamics are closely related for this class of maps means that it is a good starting point for applying complex techniques to the real case. It also provides us with useful techniques from harmonic analysis. For example the Green functions of real sets satisfy certain growth conditions, and these translate into conditions insuring expansion and regularity of unstable manifolds. This allows us to show that maximal entropy diffeomorphisms are quasi-expanding (). Quasi-expansion is the two dimensional analog of $`f`$ having non-recurrent critical points. The exploitation of the properties of quasi-expanding diffeomorphisms leads to the proofs of the Theorems 5.1 and 5.2.

We believe that the connections made so far do not represent the end of the story but only the beginning. We trust that the picture of two dimensional complex dynamics will become clearer with time and, as it does, there will be valuable interactions with the theory of real dynamics.

References

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# Photon filters in a microwave cavity

## 1 Introduction

The Jaynes-Cummings model ( and ) has been widely used to model the bahaviour of atoms in high-quality cavities. Usually it has been used with constant parameters, and the possibility to obtain analytic results for the time evolution has made it a useful tool in analyzing both the theoretical and experimental aspects of cavity QED. In our earlier works ( and ) we have considered the possibility to tune the cavity parameters during the time of interactions with the individual atoms. In , we utilized the fact that the model reduces to sets of uncoupled two-level systems in order to manipulate the quantum state of the cavity. Such modifications of the parameters must take place slowly enough to allow the cavity to follow adiabtically retaining the identity of its individual modes. By introducing exactly solvable models, we were able to explore the possibilities offered by such systems. In particular, we considered the time evolution during the interaction followed by a projective measurement on the emerging atom as a tool to modify the shape of the photon distribution in the cavity; the atoms acted as filters on the photon state.

The Jaynes-Cummings model has been used extensively to model the physics in realistic cavity QED experiments based on microwave radiation . Schemes for preparing various states of the microwave cavity field have been proposed and realized, see e.g. . In such cavities the shape of the electromagnetic modes is mainly given by standing waves approximately described by trigonometric functions. The atom is supposed to enter the cavity at a node and exit at an opposite node. An atom thus travelling through the cavity sees this mode shape as a time dependence of the coupling constant. The model cannot be solved analytically for this case, except when the detuning is exactly zero. Such a solution was first given by Schlicher  in the present context. This work, however, was mainly concerned with the effect of the field on the atom not exploring the effect the atomic observation have on the field. Some other papers  and  also considers the effects of the time dependence induced by the mode structure traversed by the atom. The present use of the time dependence to shape the quantum state of the field is not considered in these papers.

We also, however, want to consider the exactly solvable Rosen-Zener model, which has a time dependence of the coupling function which approximates the mode shape in a cavity. Here as in the actual cavity, the detuning is taken to be constant. This neglects possible Stark shifts caused by the electromagnetic field. When an atom travels through the standing wave of a real cavity, it thus experiences a time dependent coupling which does not greatly differ from that in the model.

The Rosen-Zener model was not investigated in our previous work , but here we use it as a point of comparison for the more realistic trigonometric dependence. We find that the exact shape of the coupling function is not crucial, but also that the Rosen-Zener model is much more sensitive to the detuning than the cavity mode model.

The section 2.1 summarises the results from paper  on the time-dependent Jaynes-Cummings model and section 2.2 applies these results to the Rosen-Zener model. In section 3.1 we present the details of our more realistic description of a microwave mode traversed by a sequence of single atoms. Section 3.2 compares the numerically obtained results for the cavity mode with those of the Rosen-Zener and shows how efficient the type of interaction is, if we want to achieve a narrow photon distribution. Section 4 presents some general observations on the results obtained.

## 2 Time-dependent Jaynes-Cummings model

### 2.1 Manipulating the cavity field

The Jaynes-Cummings model describes the atom by a two-level state $`|\pm `$ and the field consists of a single mode. Further, the cavity losses and spontaneous emission of the atomic levels are neglected, which means that characteristic time-scales in the interacting system are much shorter than the atomic and the cavity loss time. The Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian is (with $`\mathrm{}=1`$)

$$H=\mathrm{\Omega }b^{}b+\frac{\omega }{2}\sigma _3+g\left(b^{}\sigma ^{}+b\sigma ^+\right),$$
(1)
where the $`\sigma `$:s are the ordinary Pauli matrices.

The operator $`N=b^{}b+\frac{1}{2}\sigma _3`$ commutes with $`H`$ and is therefore a constant of motion. We consider the Hamiltonian $`\stackrel{~}{H}=H\mathrm{\Omega }N`$ and the dynamics of $`N`$ can be added separately afterwards. In the basis $`\left\{|n,\pm \right\}`$, the transformed Hamiltonian $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ is in block-diagonal form, and the Schrödinger equation can be solved within each block

$$i\frac{d}{dt}\left[\begin{array}{c}a_+(n)\hfill \\ \\ a_{}(n)\hfill \end{array}\right]=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\omega }{2}\hfill & & g\sqrt{n}\hfill \\ & & \\ g\sqrt{n}\hfill & & \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\omega }{2}\hfill \end{array}\right]\left[\begin{array}{c}a_+(n)\hfill \\ \\ a_{}(n)\hfill \end{array}\right],$$
(2)
with the detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega =\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$. As mentioned in the introduction, here the detuning is assumed to be time-independent while the coupling constant $`g`$ depends on time.

The state of the whole system can be written as

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=c_0a_{}(0)|0,+\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}c_n\left[a_+(n)|n1,++a_{}(n)|n,\right],$$
(3)
where the initial state, determined by $`c_n`$ and $`a_\pm ^0(n)`$, is assumed to be known. The state after the interaction is given by $`a_\pm ^{\mathrm{}}(n)`$.

If the atom is found in one of the states $`|\pm `$ after the interaction, the corresponding photon distribution for the cavity mode is then (up to a normalization constant)

$$\begin{array}{c}P_n^+=|a_+^{\mathrm{}}(n+1)|^2|c_{n+1}|^2\hfill \\ \\ P_n^{}=|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2|c_n|^2.\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
If we only consider the initial conditions

$$|a_{}^0|=1,a_+^0=0,$$
(5)
or vice versa, no interference terms need to be considered, see . From (4) it is clear that the initial field distribution $`|c_n|^2`$ is modified by $`|a_\pm ^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2`$ after the measurement of the atomic state. The shape of these “filter functions” is crucial for what final state the field will be found in.

For zero detuning the Schrödinger equation is analytically solvable . With the initial condition (5), the filter functions will be oscillating with $`n`$ according to

$$\begin{array}{ccc}|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2\hfill & =\hfill & \mathrm{cos}^2\left(\sqrt{n}A\right)\hfill \\ & & \\ |a_+^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2\hfill & =\hfill & \mathrm{sin}^2\left(\sqrt{n}A\right),\hfill \end{array}$$
(6)
with the area of the coupling given by

$$A=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}g(t)𝑑t.$$
(7)
It follows that the shape of $`g(t)`$ is not important in this case, only the area. We note that no transitions occur if $`A`$ vanishes. This happens in the trivial situation when the coupling $`g(t)`$ is identically equal to zero, but it is also possible if the coupling changes sign. For a small detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ we expect solutions similar to (6), but with some corrections of the amplitudes. When the detuning is increased further, the solutions may not necessarily have the oscillating form in (6).

After the passage of one atom, the process can be repeated and, even after several atoms, the state of the cavity mode is fully determined. For example, if $`m`$ atoms are injected and all the atoms are found in their lower state $`|`$ after the interactions, the field distribution will be

$$P_n^{}(m)|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^{2m}|c_n|^2.$$
(8)
This method can then be used to create, for example non-classical states of the field, provided that $`|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^{2m}`$ has a sharp peak where the initial photon distribution differs from zero. Note, however, that if atoms are detected in their upper level, the photon distribution is multiplied by $`|a_+^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2`$ and the asymmetry in (4) makes the analysis more complicated. This situation will be discussed separately.

### 2.2 The Rosen-Zener model

To demonstrate how the method described above can be used to manipulate the state of the field, we look at the Rosen-Zener model which is analytically solvable for the filter functions. In the model the coupling is given by

$$g(t)=g_0\mathrm{sech}\left(\frac{t}{T}\right).$$
(9)
and the detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ is constant. With the initial condition (5), the filter functions becomes

$$\begin{array}{ccc}a_+^{\mathrm{}}(n)^2\hfill & =\hfill & \mathrm{sin}^2\left(\pi Tg_0\sqrt{n}\right)\mathrm{sech}^2\left(\pi T\mathrm{\Delta }\omega /2\right)\hfill \\ & & \\ a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)^2\hfill & =\hfill & 1a_+^{\mathrm{}}(n)^2.\hfill \end{array}$$
(10)
In the non-adiabatic limit ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega T0`$), the hyperbolic secant is equal to one, and the filter function for a lower level projection is a simple cos-function squared just as the solutions (6). This gives a filter around its maxima

$$n_M=\frac{k^2}{T^2g_0^2},k=0,1,2,\mathrm{}$$
(11)
and the width of the filter function is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }n_a=\frac{\sqrt{n_M}}{Tg_0}.$$
(12)
Thus for an initial field distribution centered around one maximum $`n_M`$ and with a width $`\mathrm{\Delta }n_p`$ smaller than $`\mathrm{\Delta }n_a`$, a measurement of a lower level atom will decrease the width of the photon distribution. Note that for an initial coherent state we have $`\mathrm{\Delta }n_p\sqrt{\overline{n}}`$ and the filtering effect is independent of which maximum the field is centered around. From the solutions (10) we also note that as small a detuning as possible is preferable, if we wish to sharpen the photon distribution.

## 3 The microwave cavity

### 3.1 The model

We consider a microwave cavity with one single mode such that the number of half wavelengths of the mode is $`l`$. Note that $`l`$ is not too big, since we assume to be in the microwave regime. If we now let an atom, moving with velocity $`v`$, pass through the cavity along the standing wave, the coupling between the mode and the atom is

$$g(t)=\{\begin{array}{ccc}g_0\mathrm{cos}(kvlt),\hfill & \frac{\pi }{2kv}t\frac{\pi }{2kv}\hfill & \mathrm{and}l=1,3,\mathrm{}\hfill \\ & & \\ g_0\mathrm{sin}(kvlt),\hfill & \frac{\pi }{2kv}t\frac{\pi }{2kv}\hfill & \mathrm{and}l=2,4,\mathrm{}\hfill \\ & & \\ 0\hfill & t<\frac{\pi }{2kv}\hfill & \mathrm{or}t>\frac{\pi }{2kv}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(13)
The detuning is still assumed to be time-independent. No analytic solution of the Schrödinger equation is known with the coupling given by (13) and a non-zero detuning. However, if the detuning is small, the solution is expected to be approximately given by (6). Also, in the Rosen-Zener model we have seen that the smallest detuning possible will enhance the filtering effect. In this limit, we note that if $`l`$ is an even number, no transition will take place, since the area $`A`$ vanishes. However if $`l`$ is odd, then $`A=2g_0/kvl`$ is non-zero and we get oscillating solutions as in (6). Thus it follows, if $`l`$ is odd, that it is possible to change the state of the field by letting atoms pass through the cavity and detect the states of the emerging atoms. Just as in the Rosen-Zener model, non-classical states of the field can be achived.

### 3.2 Numerical results

The Schrödinger equation (2) with the coupling given by (13) has been solved numerically using the ordinary Runge-Kutta method. The filter functions obtained are compared with the ones in the Rosen-Zener model. In order to compare them, the pulse-area $`A`$ must be choosen equal in the two models, which means that $`T=\pi /2kvl`$. Further, since the area $`A`$ is proportional to $`l^1`$, we rescale it by multiplying $`g_0`$ with $`l`$. This just changes the oscillation frequency and is done in order that solutions with different $`l`$:s may be compared easily.

The function $`|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2`$ for the microwave case and the Rosen-Zener model is plotted in figure 1 for the dimensionless parameters $`g_0=5`$, $`T=0.1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega =0.5`$ and $`l=1,2,3`$. The figure confirms that, as long as $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ is small, the form of $`g(t)`$ is not important. We clearly see that all three curves with non-vanishing coupling area $`A`$ coincide closely. A difference between the curves can only be seen at the maxima and minima where the two models differ slightly; however the $`l=1`$ and $`l=3`$ curves are identical. The curve with $`l=2`$ has $`A=0`$ and no effect is expected to arise as is confirmed in the plot.

For larger values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$, the shape of the coupling $`g(t)`$ becomes more important. In the Rosen-Zener model we still have an oscillating function, but the minima of $`|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2`$ will now differ from zero since $`\mathrm{sech}^2(\pi T\mathrm{\Delta }\omega )<1`$. It is interesting to look for this behavior in the microwave model. Figure 2 is again showing $`|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2`$ for the two models with the same parameters as in figure 1, except for the detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega =5`$. The filter functions for the microwave model seem to depend more weakly on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ than in the Rosen-Zener model. We also note that the value of the minima is not constant, but is approaching zero for larger $`n`$:s. The weak $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$-dependence in the cavity model means that the filtering effect is improved. On the other hand, if the atoms are used to probe the state of the cavity field, then it may be preferable to have a large $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$-dependence, see . We also see that, in the $`l=2`$ case, this does not nescessarely imply that $`|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2=1`$, even though the area $`A`$ is zero. It is also clear from the figure that the $`l=1`$ and $`l=3`$ curves differs in this case.

From the plots of the filter functions and the discussion above, we conclude that it is possible to create a sharpened photon distribution by letting atoms pass the microwave cavity. To check this, we assume the initial photon distribution in the cavity to be a Poissonian

$$|c_n|^2=\mathrm{exp}(\overline{n})\frac{\overline{n}^n}{n!},$$
(14)
centered around the second maximum of $`|a_{}^{\mathrm{}}(n)|^2`$ at $`n=16`$. If we measure $`m`$ atoms in their lower state after the interactions, the photon distribution will be given by (8). The distribution $`P_n^{}(m)`$ is shown in figure 3 with $`l=1`$ and the other parameters are as in figure 1, the number of atoms is $`m=1`$, $`5`$ and $`25`$ and initially $`\overline{n}=16`$. It is manifest that the width of the distribution is decreasing when $`m`$ is increased.

Figure 3 shows clearly that a sharpened distribution is achived. Another way to investigate the state of the field is to study the Mandel $`Q`$-parameter, which is defined as

$$Q=\frac{n^2n^2n}{n}.$$
(15)
For a Poissonian distribution, the $`Q`$-parameter is zero, for a super-Poissonian state it is greater than zero and for a non-classical sub-Poissonian state we have $`1<Q<0`$. In figure 4 we have plotted the $`Q`$-parameter as a function of the coupling-strength $`g_0`$ when twenty-five ($`m=25`$) atoms have passed the cavity, and all of them have been recorded in their lower state. The dimensionless parameters are $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega =0.5`$, $`T=0.1`$ and $`l=1`$ and the initial field was in a coherent state (14) with $`\overline{n}=20`$. The plot indicates that a non-classical state is achived for a large range of values of $`g_0`$. If the initial state of the field is known, the $`Q`$-parameter can be used to find the optimal parameters $`g_0`$ and $`T`$ needed to get a sharpened photon distribution.

## 4 Conclusion

In this paper we have discussed the filtering action of a model where the time dependence of the coupling constant is provided by the field experienced by an atom traversing a cavity eigenmode. Numerically we have investigated a trigonometric dependence on the position in the cavity. This model neglects possible complications arising from edge effects at the entrance or exit of the cavity. The resulting effect is expected to be small, but when the situation is such that the onset of the interaction switches between sudden and adiabatic, there are interesting questions to explore. This was, in fact, investigated in the case of zero detuning in .

For the method presented above to work, it is crucial that the atom-field interaction-time is considerably smaller than the cavity loss time $`\tau _{loss}`$. Typical experimental values are $`v300`$ m/s and $`\nu 50`$ GHz, which gives the interaction time

$$\tau _{int}=\frac{\pi }{kv}10\mu s.$$
(16)
For a high-$`Q`$ microwave cavity one can achieve cavity loss times as large as $`\tau _{loss}0.3`$ s, from which we conclude that it is possible to manipulate the field before it decays. Suitable choice of the atomic transition makes the atomic decay times sufficiently large too.

The trigonometric mode shape has also been investigated by Schlicher , but he considers mainly the ability of the atom to follow the changing field adiabatically. He introduces no explicit measurement on the atom and does not discuss the change of the cavity field effected by the interaction with the atom.

In our work we find that the Rosen-Zener model is much more sensitive to the detuning between the atoms and the radiation than the simple trigonometric model. This may be understood to derive from the different interaction times; in the trigonometric model, the total interaction time is determined by the period of the mode function. In the Rosen-Zener model, on the other hand, the interaction acts over an infinite interval. Because the detuning defines the rate of oscillation of the two levels, the effect of it may show up more dramatically when it acts over the longer time interval. A smooth switch on/off will enhance the possibility for the atom to follow the field.

In order to verify this conjecture, we have investigated a variety of pulse shapes with different sharpness of switching on and off the interaction. The trigonometric function disappears linearly and the Rosen-Zener model exponentially. Faster switching is achived by a square-wave pulse or a Gaussian. A slower switching can be achived by using a Lorentzian. We thus have the switch on and off rate occurring in the ordered sequence

$$\mathrm{square}\mathrm{wave}>\mathrm{trigonometric}>\mathrm{Gaussian}>\mathrm{Rosen}\mathrm{Zener}>\mathrm{Lorentzian}.$$
(17)
In order to check the dependence on the detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ for these cases, we choose the minimum at $`n=49`$ in figure 2. The shift of the value at this minimum is shown in figure 5. As we can see the sensitivity is indeed given by the sequence in (17). In the comparison the pulse area has been choosen the same in each case; the other details of the pulses are given in the Appendix.

The two-level problem with Lorentzian and Gaussian pulse shapes has been investigated before  and . However, they did not discuss the dependence on the detuning or how the pulse shape affect the possibility for adiabatic following. As the models in their works are semiclassical, the photon statistics discussed here is, of course, not relevant in their papers.

## Appendix

The pulse area is choosen to be

$$A=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}g(t)𝑑t=\pi Tg_0=\frac{g_0\pi }{10},$$
(18)
so that setting the time-scale $`T=0.1`$ in the Rosen-Zener model determines the normalization for the different cases. Table 1 gives the different shapes of the pulses and parameters used in figure 5.

| Pulse shape | Parameters |
| --- | --- |
| Square-wave: $`g(t)=g_0\frac{1}{2}\left[\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{t+\tau }{t_s}\right)\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{t\tau }{t_s}\right)\right]`$ | $`\tau =\pi T`$, $`t_s=0.02`$ |
| Trigonometric: $`g(t)=g_0\mathrm{cos}(kvt)`$ | $`kv=\frac{2}{\pi T}`$ |
| Gaussian: $`g(t)=\frac{g_0}{\sqrt{\pi }2\sigma }\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{(t/\tau )^2}{4\sigma ^2}\right]`$ | $`\tau =\pi T`$, $`\sigma =0.3`$ |
| Rosen-Zener: $`g(t)=g_0\mathrm{sech}\left(\frac{t}{T}\right)`$ | $`T=0.1`$ |
| Lorentzian: $`g(t)=g_0\frac{(\gamma /\pi )^2}{(t/\tau )^2+\gamma ^2}`$ | $`\tau =\pi T`$, $`\gamma =0.3`$ |

The parameter $`\tau =\pi T`$ gives the chosen pulse area and $`t_s`$, $`\sigma `$ and $`\gamma `$ are measures of the different widths/steepnesses in the models. The widths are choosen such that $`g(0)1`$ for all pulses. The coupling strength is as in figure 2, $`g_0=5`$, and is the same for all models. Note that we have used hyperbolic tangent functions for simulation of the square-wave pulse. However, in the limit that $`t_s`$ goes to zero, we obtain a step-function pulse which is analytically solvable.


text:
# Shift of the molecular bound state threshold in dense ultracold Fermi gases with Feshbach resonance

## Abstract

We consider a dense ultracold Fermi gas in the presence of a Feshbach resonance. We investigate how the treshold for bound state formation, which is just at the Feshbach resonance for a dilute gas, is modified due to the presence of the Fermi sea. We make use of a preceding framework of handling this many-body problem. We restrict ourselves to the simple case where the chemical potential $`\mu `$ is negative, which allows us to cover in particular the classical limit where the effect is seen to disappear. We show that, within a simple approach where basically only the effect of Pauli exclusion is included, the Fermi sea produces a large shift of the threshold, which is of order of the width of the Feshbach resonance. This is in agreement with very recent experimental findings.

PACS numbers : 74.20.Fg, 74.72.Bk, 74.25.Jb

After the original breakthrough in the production of Bose-Einstein condensates in ultracold bosonic atomic gases and the remarkable progress in understanding the underlying physics of these superfluids , the exploration of similar dense  fermionic systems has taken off recently. A first series of experiments have reached the strongly degenerate regime with mixtures of fermions in two different hyperfine states . One of the major goals in exploring these systems is the search for a transition to a BCS superfluid , which is the equivalent of Bose condensation for these fermionic gases. A major advantage of these gaseous systems is the possibility of a direct experimental control of the interaction, through electric fields or laser induced resonance for example. However the most currently used method is to apply a static magnetic field and go in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance  where the scattering length, directly linked to the interaction, is strongly varying.

In this paper we consider how the threshold for formation of the molecular bound state linked to this Feshbach resonance is modified by the presence of the Fermi sea. The standard Feshbach resonance is due to the coupling of an open channel, corresponding to two atoms with nuclear and electronic spin degrees of freedom corresponding to a large distance situation, with a closed channel where these degrees of freedom are in another configuration corresponding to a bound state with atoms at short distance, i.e. a molecular state. Actually when the energy of this bound state is positive (this corresponds to a positive detuning), this bound state is only a quasi-bound state because the molecular state can decay into two free atoms, because precisely of the small coupling between the two channels. On the other hand when the energy of the molecular state is negative (negative detuning), we have a true bound state since there is no decay energetically allowed. Naturally the existence of this molecular state is important both for fundamental and for practical reasons. On the fundamental side it has been emphasized recently  that the strong interaction produced by the vicinity of this resonance could be a major help for the BCS transition. Moreover the physics would become richer, due to the appearance of a Bose condensate of the molecules corresponding to the bound state. On the practical side the production of this molecular state is a first step in the decay of the whole metastable atomic gas, produced by three-body recombination . Therefore it is of clear interest to investigate what happens to this molecular state due to the influence of the Fermi sea.

Quite recently  we have considered how the scattering amplitude due to a Feshbach resonance is modified by the presence of the dense Fermi gas. Note that the problem of the modification of scattering by interactions in cold quantum gases has already been adressed by H. Stoof  . Although the formalism we used  is quite general, its application in this paper has been strongly simplified. First the irreducible vertex has been taken merely as the simple scattering amplitude of two isolated atoms. Second the effect of the Fermi gas has been taken into account by including only Pauli exclusion. Even so the resulting scattering amplitude displays quite non trivial features. First, in contrast with what happens in vacuum, it depends on the total momentum of the scattering atoms. This is easily understood since, for two atoms with very high momentum, the blocking of some states due to Pauli exclusion will only alter slightly their scattering. On the other hand when the total momentum is zero and the energy of the atoms is of the order of a typical energy for atoms in the Fermi gas, many states which are relevant for the scattering of the two atoms in vacuum will be blocked due to Pauli exclusion and the scattering amplitude is deeply modified. In the following we consider only this case of zero total momentum since it displays the strongest manifestation of Pauli exclusion. Also, just as in , we omit for simplicity any background scattering, so the scattering originates only from the Feshbach resonance.

In this case the following result  is obtained for the inverse of the scattering amplitude $`f(\omega )`$ as a function of the total energy $`\omega `$ of the scattering particles (we take $`\mathrm{}=1`$ and $`k_B=1`$):

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{f(\omega )}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{\gamma }}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑k[1{\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{k^2m\omega }}\mathrm{tanh}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_k\mu }{2T}}]`$ (1)
with $`ϵ_k=k^2/2m`$. Here the coupling parameter $`\gamma `$ is also a measure of the energetic width of the Feshbach resonance, while $`a`$ is the scattering length due to the Feshbach resonance which is directly linked to the detuning $`\omega _0`$ by $`a=\gamma /\omega _0`$. In contrast with Ref. , the origin for the energy $`\omega `$ of the particles has not been shifted at the chemical potential. This energy $`\omega `$ has to be understood with an infinitesimal positive imaginary part. One recovers the case of two atoms in vacuum by setting the chemical potential $`\mu =0`$ and looking at the $`T=0`$ limit. Then the last term gives only the contribution required by unitarity and one finds as expected:

$`f(\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(\omega \omega _0)/\gamma +i(m\omega )^{1/2}}}`$ (2)
The standard Feshbach resonance, with a diverging scattering amplitude, is found at zero energy $`\omega =0`$ when the detuning $`\omega _0`$ is equal to zero. This corresponds to an infinite scattering length $`a`$. In contrast nothing peculiar happens in Eq.(1) when one crosses the infinite scattering length $`a^1=0`$ situation. Actually in the case of 6Li the coupling $`\gamma `$ is very large and we are left only with the last term in Eq.(1) which originates from the presence of the Fermi sea. Clearly when $`a^1`$ becomes small, it becomes also irrelevant. This is in agreement with the recent experimental results of various groups  who do not see any accident when they cross the supposed location of the resonance. This finding is also completely coherent with a very recent calculation of Pitaevskii and Stringari  where they showed that the virial coefficient has no discontinuity when one goes across the unitary limit $`a^1=0`$.

In this paper we want to consider another immediate consequence of Eq.(1) which is also directly relevant for experiments. For the case Eq.(2) of two particles in vacuum the appearance of the bound state of these two particles, corresponding physically to the existence of a molecular state, occurs as soon as the detuning becomes negative, that is when the scattering length becomes positive $`a>0`$. Experimentally this corresponds to a well defined magnetic field, since the detuning is directly controlled by the applied magnetic field. This molecular state appears as a pole in $`f(\omega )`$ as given by Eq.(2) for negative values of the energy. One finds specifically for the binding energy $`ϵ_b=\omega `$ of this state:

$`ϵ_b={\displaystyle \frac{1}{ma^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{1+2r+\sqrt{1+4r}}}`$ (3)
where $`r=(1/ma^2)/|\omega _0|=1/(m\gamma a)`$ is the ratio between the two limiting values of this binding energy. Indeed for $`r1`$ one finds the standard binding energy $`ϵ_b=1/ma^2`$ associated with the positive scattering length $`a`$, while for $`r1`$ the binding energy is equal to the detuning $`ϵ_b=|\omega _0|`$.

Now it is clear that the existence of the Fermi sea will shift in general the magnetic field at which the molecular state appears. This is specifically produced by the last term in Eq.(1). Indeed it is seen that for $`\omega =0`$ one does not find a pole for $`a^1=0`$ since in this case the last term is always positive because $`\mathrm{tanh}x<1`$. Here we restrict ourselves to the simple case where the chemical potential $`\mu `$ is negative, which allows us to cover in particular the classical limit where the effect is seen to disappear. In order to find the magnetic field $`B`$ for which the molecules appear we look for the corresponding value of the scattering length $`a(B)`$. We find it from Eq.(1) by assuming that the binding energy of the molecules is zero when they first appear. We will afterwards check this hypothesis. Since we are interested in non-positive values of the energy, the imaginary part in Eq.(1) is zero and we have only to deal with the real part. Setting Re$`f^1(\omega )=0`$ for $`\omega =0`$ leads to:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}={\displaystyle \frac{4}{\pi }}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑k{\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\frac{ϵ_k+|\mu |}{T}}+1}}`$ (4)
At the level of our approximation the chemical potential $`\mu `$ in Eq.(3) is merely linked to the single species particle density $`n`$ by the free particle equation:

$`n={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑k{\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{e^{\frac{ϵ_k+|\mu |}{T}}+1}}`$ (5)
In the classical limit $`e^{|\mu |/T}\mathrm{}`$ one finds easily from Eq.(4):

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}=4({\displaystyle \frac{mT}{2\pi }})^{1/2}e^{\frac{|\mu |}{T}}={\displaystyle \frac{4}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_T}}e^{\frac{|\mu |}{T}}`$ (6)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_T=(2\pi \mathrm{}^2/mT)^{1/2}`$ is the de Broglie thermal wavelength, while Eq.(5) gives the well known classical ideal gas relation:

$`n=({\displaystyle \frac{mT}{2\pi }})^{3/2}e^{\frac{|\mu |}{T}}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_T^3e^{\frac{|\mu |}{T}}`$ (7)
Together these results lead to:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}=8\pi {\displaystyle \frac{n\mathrm{}^2}{mT}}=4n\mathrm{\Lambda }_T^2`$ (8)
where we have reintroduced the Planck constant. As expected $`a^1`$ goes to zero in the limit of large temperature and low density, and we recover that the molecular state appears right below the Feshbach resonance. We can also rewrite this result by introducing a wavevector $`k_F`$ linked to the density $`n`$ by the same relation as in the $`T=0`$ limit, namely $`n=k_F^3/6\pi ^2`$. If we set $`E_F=\mathrm{}^2k_F^2/2m`$ for the corresponding energy we have:

$`k_Fa={\displaystyle \frac{3\pi }{8}}{\displaystyle \frac{T}{E_F}}`$ (9)
Naturally the classical regime corresponds to $`TE_F`$, so the scattering length $`a`$ at the threshold for molecule formation gets very large, all the more since, for a trapped gas, the density $`n`$ decreases when the temperature increases which makes the length scale $`1/k_F`$ (basically the interparticle distance) increase with $`T`$. On the other hand the extrapolation of this simple formula in the regime $`TE_F`$ shows immediately that the molecular threshold is shifted in this case to a scattering length $`a1/k_F`$. In the specific case of 6Li , one of the most studied experimentally, this gives for the degenerate conditions a scattering length of order of 100 nm. This implies a shift corresponding to a change of the magnetic field of order of the width of the Feshbach resonance, which is typically 100G. This large shift is in very good qualitative agreement, both in sign and in magnitude, with the very recent experimental results of Dieckmann et al. and of Bourdel et al. .

In order to be more quantitative in the general case we have just to handle Eq.(4) and (5) numerically. This is done conveniently by taking $`y=k/(2mT)^{1/2}`$ as new variable. Introducing $`k_F`$ as above, setting $`R=T/E_F`$ and $`A=\mathrm{exp}(|\mu |/T)`$, we see that Eq.(5) gives $`R`$ in terms of $`A`$ as:

$`R^{3/2}=3{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑y{\displaystyle \frac{y^2}{Ae^{y^2}+1}}`$ (10)
while Eq.(4) then leads for the threshold scattering length $`a`$ to:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{k_Fa}}={\displaystyle \frac{4}{\pi }}R^{1/2}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑y{\displaystyle \frac{1}{Ae^{y^2}+1}}`$ (11)
For our range of interest $`A1`$, our degeneracy parameter $`R`$ is going from $`1`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$. The result for $`1/k_Fa`$ as a function of $`R=T/E_F`$ is given in Fig. 1 with a logarithmic scale for $`R`$. We have also plotted the asymptotic result Eq.(9) which is seen to give still a reasonable estimate for $`R=1`$.

We have still to check that the threshold corresponds to molecules with zero binding energy. If we look for a bound state with binding energy $`ϵ_b`$ appearing for a scattering length $`a_b`$, we have from Eq.(1) with $`\omega =ϵ_b`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a_b}}={\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_b}{\gamma }}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑k[1{\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{k^2+mϵ_b}}\mathrm{tanh}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_k+|\mu |}{2T}}]`$ (12)
Taking the difference with Eq.(4) which gives the scattering length $`a`$ for zero binding energy, we find:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a_b}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}={\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_b}{\gamma }}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑k{\displaystyle \frac{mϵ_b}{k^2+mϵ_b}}\mathrm{tanh}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_k+|\mu |}{2T}}`$ (13)
which is positive. So, just as for the case of two particles in vacuum, molecules with non zero binding energy correspond to lower scattering length than those with zero binding energy. Therefore they appear later when one starts from the Feshbach resonance and decreases progressively the scattering length by lowering the magnetic field.

Naturally we have to keep in mind that this result represents the maximum shift on the threshold for the molecular state, since it corresponds to the case where the total momentum is zero. There will be a similar shift for non zero momentum, but it decreases with momentum as we have already mentionned since for very high momentum the blocking effect of the other fermions is clearly very weak. So there is actually a distribution of threshold with $`a^1`$ going from zero to its maximum value given by Eq.(4). Similarly we have in real experimental systems a distribution of densities due to the trapping potential. So direct comparison with experiment should take into account these two distributions. Nevertheless the maximum value of the threshold is given by Eq.(4) with the particle density equal to its maximum value at the center of the trap. Starting from low positive values of the scattering length and increasing it, which corresponds for 6Li to increase the magnetic field starting from low values, our result Eq.(4) corresponds therefore to the lowest magnetic field for which resonating conditions for the formation of molecules will occur. Of course molecular bound state do exist for all the range $`a>0`$ but it is known that its formation through three-body recombination  is strongly enhanced in the immediate vicinity of the resonant situation. Note that important dynamical effects will necessarily occur in experiments, which will make quantitative comparison with theory even harder. In this respect it seems that direct spectroscopic observation of the molecules would provide the best investigation tool.

In conclusion we have studied the effect of Pauli exclusion due to the Fermi sea on the Feshbach resonance. We have shown that, as a natural consequence, there is a shift of the threshold for the formation of molecules under resonating conditions. The sign and the size of the effect is in very good qualitative agreement with the very recent experimental findings of Dieckmann et al. and of Bourdel et al. . Naturally it must be kept in mind that our theoretical treatment is rough since we take only into account Pauli exclusion and we have not included the effect of the interactions in the last term in Eq.(1). Nevertheless we do not expect the physics linked to Pauli exclusion to disappear in the full solution of the problem. Proper account of the interactions is likely to modify quantitatively the size of the shift, but we do not expect them to modify it qualitatively. In particular it is unlikely to suppress this effect and make this shift almost disappear. Therefore we believe that our simple estimates provides already a proper physical understanding of the shift.

We are very grateful to T. Bourdel, Y. Castin, C. Cohen-Tannoudji, J. Dalibard, X. Leyronas, C. Mora, C. Salomon and G. Shlyapnikov for very stimulating discussions.

* Laboratoire associé au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et aux Universités Paris 6 et Paris 7.