Equilibrium Partition Function of Non-Relativistic CFTs in Harmonic Trap
Abstract
We investigate the equilibrium partition function of non-relativistic conformal field theories in harmonic quantization. We first analyze the hydrodynamic regime and show that, at leading order, the partition function exhibits a universal structure determined by the equation of state: the logarithm of the partition function develops simple poles in , where is the harmonic trapping frequency and are angular velocities acting as chemical potentials for angular momentum. The corresponding residue is determined by a single-variable function of , with the particle-number chemical potential and the temperature. We then study the large-angular-momentum limit . In this regime centrifugal effects nearly cancel the trapping potential, and the logarithm of the partition function again exhibits simple poles in , but with a less universal residue depending separately on and . As explicit examples we analyze superfluid systems realizable in cold-atom experiments, in particular fermions at unitarity confined in a harmonic trap.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.09856,
title = {Equilibrium Partition Function of Non-Relativistic CFTs in Harmonic Trap},
author = {Eunwoo Lee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.09856},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
34 pages