Superfluid phases of the three-species fermion gas

We discuss the zero temperature phase diagram of a dilute gas with three fermionic species. We make use of solvable limits to conjecture the behavior of the system in the unitary regions. The physics of the Thomas-Efimov effect plays a role in these considerations. We find a rich phase diagram with superfluid, gapless superfluid and inhomogeneous phases with different symmetry breaking patterns. We then discuss one particular possible experimental implementation in a system of Li-6 atoms and the possible phases arising in this system as an external magnetic field is varied across three overlapping Feshbach resonances. We also suggest how to experimentally distinguish the different phases. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.