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Science 6 October 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5796, p. 54
DOI: 10.1126/science.1130697
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Technical Comments

Response to Comment on "Pairing and Phase Separation in a Polarized Fermi Gas"

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

Zwierlein and Ketterle rely on subjective arguments and fail to recognize important differences in physical parameters between our experiment and theirs. We stand by the conclusions of our original report.

Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.

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

Having failed to establish that trap anharmonicities or other objective mechanisms affect the conclusions of our study (1), Zwierlein and Ketterle (2) now make the more subjective assertion that our claims are not supported by the data presented. We stand by the statements and claims made in (1). Furthermore, in emphasizing discrepancies between our results and theirs, Zwierlein and Ketterle ignore differences in physical parameters of the two experiments. Differences in aspect ratio (3) or temperature (4, 5), for example, can have profound effects on the results.


References and Notes

  • 1. G. B. Partridge, W. Li, R. I. Kamar, Y. Liao, R. G. Hulet, Science 311, 503 (2006); published online 21 December 2005 (10.1126/science.1122876).[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • 2. M. W. Zwierlein, W. Ketterle, Science 314, 54 (2006); www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5796/54a.
  • 3. T. N. De Silva, E. J. Mueller, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 070402 (2006).
  • 4. K. B. Gubbels, M. W. J. Romans, H. T. C. Stoof, cond-mat/0606330 (2006).
  • 5. M. M. Parish, F. M. Marchetti, A. Lamacraft, B. D. Simons, cond-mat/0605744 (2006).
Received for publication 30 May 2006. Accepted for publication 12 September 2006.

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