Pairing gaps in atomic gases at the BCS-BEC crossover

Strong evidence for pairing and superfluidity has recently been found in atomic Fermi gases at the BCS-BEC crossover both in collective modes and radio frequency (RF) excitation energies. It is argued that the scale for the effective pairing gaps measured in RF experiments is set by the lowest quasiparticle in-gap excitation energies. These are calculated at the BCS-BEC crossover from semiclassical solutions to the Bogoliubov-deGennes equations. The strong damping of the radial breathing mode observed in the BCS limit occurs when the lowest quasiparticle excitation energies coincide with the radial frequency, which indicates that a coupling between them takes place.