Manipulating the critical temperature for the superfluid phase transition in trapped atomic Fermi gases

We examine the effect of the trapping potential on the critical temperature [Formula Presented] for the BCS transition to a superfluid state in trapped atomic gases of fermions. [Formula Presented] for an arbitrary power-law trap is calculated in the Thomas-Fermi approximation. For anharmonic traps, [Formula Presented] can be increased by several orders of magnitude in comparison to a harmonic trap. Our theoretical results indicate that, in practice, one could manipulate the critical temperature for the BCS phase transition by shaping the traps confining the atomic Fermi gases. 5555 2002 The American Physical Society.