Interaction Blockade and Pairing in Two-Dimensional Finite Fermion Systems

The properties of two-component fermionic quantum systems in two dimensions, such as they nowadays may be realized with cold atoms in traps, are studied within the pairing model adapted from nuclear physics. We compare the results with those of a full numerical diagonalization of the many-body Hamiltonian. The chemical potential differences, excitation energies and angular momentum spectra show that when the zero-range attractive interaction is varied in strength, strong odd-even effects, gaps and shell structure emerge.