Cold Fermi Gas or Neutron Star? -- Universal Mean Field Interactions
in anStrongly-Interacting Fermi Gas
Staci Hemmer
Following the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in 1995, cold gases
composed of Fermionic atoms have become the newest focus of laser cooling
and trapping techniques. Fermi gases show unique advantage and promise
as experimental systems of study because they allow investigations of fundamental
fermion interactions in a precisely controlled system. We have detailed
control over relevant parameters in a trapped Fermi gas, i.e. temperature,
density, spin composition, and interaction strength, allowing studies of unique
fermion phenomena such as BCS-type superfluid phase transitions, Josephson
oscillations, and Pauli blocking effects. I will discuss our method
for creating an ultra-cold, degenerate Fermi gas and our studies of strong
interactions in the gas. In a particular regime, known as the intermediate
density region (IDR), the interaction energy is predicted to take a form universal
to all strongly interacting Fermi systems, including nuclear and neutron
star matter. I will present our measurement of this interaction energy
and compare it to theoretical predictions for strongly-interacting Fermi
systems.
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