Anomalous Fisher-like zeros for the canonical partition function of noninteracting fermions

R. K. Bhaduri, A. MacDonald, W. van Dijk

Published 2011-04-29, updated 2011-11-24Version 3

Noninteracting fermions, placed in a system with a continuous density of states, may have zeros in the $N$-fermion canonical partition function on the positive real $\beta$ axis (or very close to it), even for a small number of particles. This results in a singular free energy, and instability in other thermal properties of the system. In the context of trapped fermions in a harmonic oscillator, these zeros are shown to be unphysical. By contrast, similar bosonic calculations with continuous density of states yield sensible results.Noninteracting fermions, placed in a system with a continuous density of states yield sensible results.