Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Originally published in Science Express on 22 December 2005
Science 27 January 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5760, pp. 503 - 505
DOI: 10.1126/science.1122876
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Pairing and Phase Separation in a Polarized Fermi Gas

Guthrie B. Partridge, Wenhui Li, Ramsey I. Kamar, Yean-an Liao, Randall G. Hulet*

We report the observation of pairing in a gas of atomic fermions with unequal numbers of two components. Beyond a critical polarization, the gas separates into a phase that is consistent with a superfluid paired core surrounded by a shell of normal unpaired fermions. The critical polarization diminishes with decreasing attractive interaction. For near-zero polarization, we measured the parameter ß = –0.54 ± 0.05, describing the universal energy of a strongly interacting paired Fermi gas, and found good agreement with recent theory. These results are relevant to predictions of exotic new phases of quark matter and of strongly magnetized superconductors.

Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: randy{at}rice.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Comment on "Pairing and Phase Separation in a Polarized Fermi Gas".
M. W. Zwierlein and W. Ketterle (2006)
Science 314, 54a
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Response to Comment on "Pairing and Phase Separation in a Polarized Fermi Gas".
G. B. Partridge, W. Li, R. I. Kamar, Y.-a. Liao, and R. G. Hulet (2006)
Science 314, 54b
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Fermionic Superfluidity with Imbalanced Spin Populations.
M. W. Zwierlein, A. Schirotzek, C. H. Schunck, and W. Ketterle (2006)
Science 311, 492-496
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)