Ideal Fermi gases in harmonic oscillator potential traps (Q2583791)

The authors study the ideal Fermi gas in harmonic oscillator potential. The particles are considered to be not interacting and the continuum approach is used. All the calculations were done in terms of the inverse Laplace transform of the partition function. The thermodynamic potential, chemical potential and the specific heat were computed, both for symmetric and asymmetric potential analytically. The low dimensionality systems in one and two dimensions were also considered. The analytical study of the various cases is done, based on the structure of the complex poles. A step-like behavior for the specific heat is established and former numerical results were explained. Significant deviations from the linear temperature dependence of the specific heat were observed. In one dimension the specific heat was computed to be vanishing exponentially in terms of the inverse temperature and be periodical in terms of the number of particles. In the asymmetric case periodicity was observed in terms of the potential. The relation with de Haas--van Alphen effect is also studied.