Fermi-to-Bose crossover in a trapped quasi-2D gas of fermionic atoms.

The physics of many-body systems where particles are restricted to move in two spatial dimensions is challenging and even controversial: on one hand, neither long-range order nor Bose condensation may appear in infinite uniform 2D systems at finite temperature, on the other hand this does not prohibit superfluidity or superconductivity. Moreover, 2D superconductors, such as cuprates, are among the systems with the highest critical temperatures. Ultracold atoms are a platform for studying 2D physics. Unique from other physical systems, quantum statistics may be completely changed in an ultracold gas: an atomic Fermi gas may be smoothly crossed over into a gas of Bose molecules (or dimers) by tuning interatomic interactions. We review recent experiments where such crossover has been demonstrated, as well as critical phenomena in the Fermi-to-Bose crossover. We also present simple theoretical models describing the gas at different points of the crossover and compare the data to these and more advanced models.

Virial theorem and universality in a unitary fermi gas.

Unitary Fermi gases, where the scattering length is large compared to the interparticle spacing, can have universal properties, which are independent of the details of the interparticle interactions when the range of the scattering potential is negligible. We prepare an optically trapped, unitary Fermi gas of 6Li, tuned just above the center of a broad Feshbach resonance. In agreement with the universal hypothesis, we observe that this strongly interacting many-body system obeys the virial theorem for an ideal gas over a wide range of temperatures. Based on this result, we suggest a simple volume thermometry method for unitary gases. We also show that the observed breathing mode frequency, which is close to the unitary hydrodynamic value over a wide range of temperature, is consistent with a universal hydrodynamic gas with nearly isentropic dynamics.

Damping of a unitary Fermi gas.

We measure the temperature dependence of the radial breathing mode in an optically trapped, unitary Fermi gas of 6Li, just above the center of a broad Feshbach resonance. The damping rate reveals a clear change in behavior which we interpret as arising from a superfluid transition. We suggest pair breaking as a mechanism for an increase in the damping rate which occurs at temperatures well above the transition. In contrast to the damping, the frequency varies smoothly and remains close to the unitary hydrodynamic value. At low temperature T, the damping depends on the atom number only through the reduced temperature, and extrapolates to 0 at T = 0.

Evidence for superfluidity in a resonantly interacting Fermi gas.

We observe collective oscillations of a trapped, degenerate Fermi gas of 6Li atoms at a magnetic field just above a Feshbach resonance, where the two-body physics does not support a bound state. The gas exhibits a radial breathing mode at a frequency of 2837(05) Hz, in excellent agreement with the frequency of nu(H) identical with sqrt[10nu(x)nu(y)/3]=2830(20) Hz predicted for a hydrodynamic Fermi gas with unitarity-limited interactions. The measured damping times and frequencies are inconsistent with predictions for both the collisionless mean field regime and for collisional hydrodynamics. These observations provide the first evidence for superfluid hydrodynamics in a resonantly interacting Fermi gas.