Thermodynamics of interacting fermions in atomic traps.

ABSTRACT

We calculate the entropy in a trapped, resonantly interacting Fermi gas as a function of temperature for a wide range of magnetic fields between the BCS and Bose-Einstein condensation end points. This provides a basis for the important technique of adiabatic sweep thermometry and serves to characterize quantitatively the evolution and nature of the excitations of the gas. The results are then used to calibrate the temperature in several ground breaking experiments on (6)Li and (40)K.