Pairing instability in an interacting Fermi gas

Abstract

The Cooper instability in an interacting Fermi gas is examined by using the perturbational diagram approach. A graphical derivative method based on Ward's identity is introduced to represent the contributions to the interparticle interactions from different channels. It is shown that pairing instability for the electrons excited from the Fermi sea may happen as a result of the presence of holes even when the original interaction is repulsive. Thus, in contrast to the Cooper instability caused by a given attractive interaction, the pairing instability can be induced by the particle - hole excitations. The application of the results to a layered two-dimensional Fermi gas is considered.