Quantum Monte Carlo study of the ground-state properties of a Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover

The ground-state properties of a two-component Fermi gas with attractive short-range interactions are calculated using the fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo method. The interaction strength is varied over a wide range by tuning the value a of the s-wave scattering length of the two-body potential. We calculate the energy per particle, the one- and two-body density matrix as a function of the interaction strength. Results for the momentum distribution of the atoms, as obtained from the Fourier transform of the one-body density matrix, are reported as a function of the interaction strength. Off-diagonal long-range order in the system is investigated through the asymptotic behavior of the two-body density matrix. The condensate fraction of pairs is calculated in the unitary limit and on both sides of the BCS-BEC crossover.