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Originally published in Science Express on 27 January 2005
Science 25 February 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5713, pp. 1296 - 1299
DOI: 10.1126/science.1109220
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Reports

Heat Capacity of a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas

Joseph Kinast,1 Andrey Turlapov,1 John E. Thomas,1* Qijin Chen,2 Jelena Stajic,2 Kathryn Levin2

We have measured the heat capacity of an optically trapped, strongly interacting Fermi gas of atoms. A precise addition of energy to the gas is followed by single-parameter thermometry, which determines the empirical temperature parameter of the gas cloud. Our measurements reveal a clear transition in the heat capacity. The energy and the spatial profile of the gas are computed using a theory of the crossover from Fermi to Bose superfluids at finite temperatures. The theory calibrates the empirical temperature parameter, yields excellent agreement with the data, and predicts the onset of superfluidity at the observed transition point.

1 Physics Department, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708–0305, USA.
2 James Franck Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jet{at}phy.duke.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Itinerant Ferromagnetism in a Fermi Gas of Ultracold Atoms.
G.-B. Jo, Y.-R. Lee, J.-H. Choi, C. A. Christensen, T. H. Kim, J. H. Thywissen, D. E. Pritchard, and W. Ketterle (2009)
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Pairing and Phase Separation in a Polarized Fermi Gas.
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