BCS-to-BEC crossover from the exact BCS solution

Abstract

The BCS-to-BEC crossover, as well as the nature of Cooper pairs, in superconducting and Fermi superfluid media is studied from the exact ground state wave function of the reduced BCS Hamiltonian. As the strength of the interaction increases, the ground state continuously evolves from a mixed system of quasifree fermions and pair resonances (BCS), to pair resonances and quasibound molecules (pseudogap), and finally to a system of quasibound molecules (BEC). A single unified scenario arises where the Cooper-pair wave function has a unique functional form. Several exact analytic expressions such as the binding energy and condensate fraction are derived. We compare our results with recent experiments in ultracold atomic Fermi gases.