Finite temperature effects in trapped Fermi gases with population imbalance

We study the finite temperature T behavior of trapped Fermi gases as they undergo BCS--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover, in the presence of a population imbalance. Our results, in qualitative agreement with recent experiments, show how the superfluid phase transition is directly reflected in the particle density profiles. We demonstrate that at T≠0 and in the near-BEC and unitary regimes, the polarization is excluded from the superfluid core. Importantly, a substantial polarization fraction is carried by a normal region of the trap having strong pair correlations, which we associate with noncondensed pairs or the ``pseudogap phase.''